Skin Deep

About Skin Deep

Skin Deep is the first game by Monochrome Moe and chapter 1 of The Monochrome Horror Collection, a series of short standalone horror stories in black and white. It was released on itch.io in June 2023, made in RPG Maker with original pixel graphics, and plays in the browser; you can name your own price, including nothing. The maker names Junji Ito, R. L. Stine, Chilla's Art and Puppet Combo as inspirations.

Sam is an ordinary young woman who works the night shift as a cashier in a quiet local mini mart. One ordinary night she gets an unsettling letter from an anonymous admirer, and then more follow. The game moves between her shifts at the store and her small flat, and the notes grow stranger and more insistent each time, until it is plain that someone, or something, is fixed on her.

You walk Sam through her rooms and the shop in top-down pixel art drawn in pure black and white, talk to customers with manga-style portraits, and read what the admirer leaves. The fear builds slowly from the ordinary: checkerboard floors, buzzing fridges, an empty street at night, and a line of text that should not be there. The maker's page lists multiple endings, and players note that the choices after the notes arrive, such as calling the police, lead to a different one; losing sends you back to the start.

It suits players who like short story-led RPG Maker horror and the slow-build creepiness of Junji Ito, and it is a quick way in to Monochrome Moe's later games.

How to play Skin Deep

1. Open the itch.io page and press Run game to play in the browser, or download it.
2. Move Sam with the arrow keys and hold Shift to sprint.
3. Press Space or Enter to talk to people, read the letters and use things around the flat and the store.
4. Work through Sam's shifts and nights at home, and decide how to react as the admirer's notes grow worse.
5. Play again and make different choices to see the other ending.

Tips

• If the keyboard does not respond in the browser, refresh the page, as the maker suggests.
• Press F4 for full screen.
• Look around the flat after each new note: the phone and other everyday things matter.
• A loss means starting over, so take your time on later days.

Questions