2D horror Horror Short horror Horror puzzle

Ridgewood Road

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A wellness check on a quiet road, and a house that should have stayed shut.

Platforms: Browser, PC
Stores: itch.io
Price: Pay what you want
Rated: 4.6 out of 5 from 115 ratings on itch.io; players call it creepy and tense, single out the chase and the art, and one says it gave them a nightmare
Length: about half an hour
Players: 1
Controls: WASD or arrow keys to move, Space or Enter to interact, Escape or Tab for the inventory, F for the flashlight
Made by: Milkbar Lads
Released: 2020

What frightens On a June night in 2001 in rural Michigan, a deputy and the sheriff check on a woman who has not left her house in days; inside, the rooms are dark, doors are locked and you search by flashlight, a long dark hallway and a chase wait for you, and the mystery of her disappearance turns Lynchian and grim.
Content: suicide references, chase scenes.

Ridgewood Road is a short pixel-art horror mystery by Milkbar Lads, played free in the browser. In rural Michigan in 2001, Deputy Rachel Collins and the sheriff answer a neighbour's call about a woman who has not left her house in days, and searching it by flashlight turns into something darker, toward one of several endings.

About Ridgewood Road

Ridgewood Road is a horror adventure by Milkbar Lads, made in GameMaker and released on itch.io in April 2020 as a submission to the Scream Machine jam. It plays in the browser, with a Windows download, at a price you name yourself, and over a hundred players rate it 4.6 out of 5.

It is about 10 PM on June 21st, 2001, in Cross County, Michigan. The sheriff's department gets a call from Mrs. Liu Fuzhi: her neighbour, Lisa Hughes, has not left her house in days and does not answer. Deputy Rachel Collins and Sheriff George Lahey drive out to see what has happened to her.

You play Rachel, walking her through the rooms of the house in detailed pixel art, talking with the sheriff in portrait dialogue, reading what you find, keeping your flashlight on and solving puzzles: a safe that needs a combination, the pieces of a broken mirror spread through the house, locked doors. The makers call it Lynchian, and the mystery grows strange and dark; players remember a long, dark hallway and a chase that frightened them.

It takes about half an hour and has multiple endings. The makers warn that it contains references to suicide. It suits players who like small-town mysteries with a pixel-art look and a slow-building dread.

How to play Ridgewood Road

Open Ridgewood Road on itch.io; it loads in the browser, or download it for Windows.
Move Rachel with WASD or the arrow keys, and press Space or Enter to look at or use things.
Press F to switch the flashlight on in the dark rooms.
Open the inventory with Escape or Tab to check what you have found.
Solve the house's puzzles to open the way on, and run when you have to.

Screenshots

The title screen: a Ridgewood Rd street sign against a pixel-art night sky, pine trees and a pale moon

Rachel searches a red-papered room of bookshelves and doors, saying Books, books, and more books

A car on a dark rural road at night under the moon

A dim room of the house in pixel art as Rachel finds a door locked

Tips

If you get stuck in a long, dark hallway, the makers' hint is to keep moving forward.
Search every room with the flashlight; small items hide in the dark.
If the safe stumps you, the makers give its combination among the hints on the itch.io page.
After a failed chase you may have to replay a stretch, so take the chase calmly.