Slumber

About Slumber

Slumber was made by Valentin Tazhetdinov (valentint) in Construct and released on itch.io in September 2021. It plays in the browser, on keyboard, controller or phone, and there are Windows downloads that the maker calls possibly unstable. It is name your own price, and the maker has since added Russian and Brazilian Portuguese.

Its page says little: guards Asmand, Irving and Vard drive out of town to take over their posts in a state prison, and soon after arriving, something strange begins to happen. The game shows the rest. A horse-drawn cart crosses a hill of dead trees under a blood-red sky, the prison waits behind stone walls in the rain, and inside are dim rooms lit by a single candle.

You walk the guards through side-scrolling scenes, talk, run and can strike out, while something in the prison hunts. When it catches you, the screen pulses red with shrinking circles and you return to a checkpoint. A 2022 update added checkpoints, a new dialogue system, a new ending and a better-behaved monster.

Players praise its dark atmosphere, plot and 2D art, though one found the ending a little underwhelming. It suits players who like short, grim side-scrolling horror in detailed pixel art.

How to play Slumber

1. Play in the browser on itch.io, or download a Windows version.
2. Move the guards with the keyboard or a controller; hold Shift or Left Trigger to run.
3. Talk to the other guards and explore the prison.
4. Keep away from what is in the dark; if it catches you, continue from the last checkpoint.
5. Play to the end to see what is happening at the prison.

Tips

• Hold Shift to run when you need to get away.
• If something seems stuck after a death, restart and continue from the last checkpoint, as the maker advises.
• Play in the dark; most of the prison is lit only by candles.

Questions