Cosmic and Lovecraftian horror Short horror Horror 2D horror Horror puzzle Mystery and detective horror

Snarl

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A diner, two detectives and a gray man with a shimmering smile.

Platforms: Browser, PC
Stores: itch.io
Price: Pay what you want
Rated: 4.8/5 from 68 ratings on itch.io; winner of the AGS Short Game of the Year 2025
Players: 1
Controls: Mouse: point and click to walk, look, talk and use items.
Made by: beyondbooleans
Released: 2025

What frightens In 1979 two detectives stop at a roadside diner, and a brutally injured man and his son stagger in, pointing back into the dark at a 'gray man' with a shimmering smile; the night leads to a grinning visitor in a top hat, a robed cult in a violet crypt and a withered thing outside time, with blood and gruesome moments.
Content: blood, gore, violence.

Snarl is a short, free pixel-art point-and-click horror game by beyondbooleans, winner of the AGS Short Game of the Year 2025. In October 1979 two detectives stop at a Massachusetts diner, and the evening turns into a nightmare when an injured man and his son stagger in, pointing at a gray man with a shimmering smile.

About Snarl

Snarl is by beyondbooleans, with music by Tomas Asimov and cover art by Rose Prytherch, and is a prequel to the same maker's Abscission and Teeth of Glass. It was released in 2025, won the AGS Short Game of the Year 2025, plays in the browser on itch.io and can be downloaded for Windows at a price you choose, including nothing. Its page states that no generative AI was used.

October 13th, 1979. After another harrowing case, detectives Will Stanhope and Ben Drummle pull in at a roadside diner for what should be a quiet rest. Then a brutally injured man and his son stagger through the door, pointing back into the dark toward a gray man with a shimmering smile. Someone gasps: lock the door.

You walk the detectives around the diner in side-view pixel art, question the regulars and the staff, pick up items and solve the problems in front of you. What comes is cosmic rather than ordinary: a grinning figure in a top hat who says he has travelled a dark road to be here, a robed figure demanding surrender in a crypt lit violet, and a withered skull-faced being that speaks of the past and the future as a tangle. Players warn of some gruesomeness.

It is short and has two endings. In Firefox the browser version may stutter, and the maker suggests Chrome or the download. It suits players who like Lovecraftian point-and-click horror such as the maker's own Teeth of Glass.

How to play Snarl

Press Run game on the itch.io page (Chrome works best), or download it for Windows.
Click to walk the detectives around and to look at and talk to people.
Pick up items and use them on people and places to move the story on.
Make your choices carefully; they lead to one of two endings.

Screenshots

A 1970s diner with a checkered floor, injured people slumped by the counter and blood on the tiles as someone says Lock the door

Close-up of the gray man, a grinning, wrinkled face under a top hat: It is a cold night, and a dark road I have travelled to be here

A robed figure lit violet raises its arms over kneeling shapes in a crypt and says Surrender, as a detective watches

A withered skeletal figure with glowing eyes and metal rods in its head: The past and the future all became a tangle

Tips

Use Chrome or the download; the maker warns Firefox may stutter.
If a book will not close in the browser, players found fullscreen or the download easier.
Talk to everyone in the diner; the regulars know more than they say.
Play Teeth of Glass and Abscission afterwards; Snarl is their prequel.