Ten Bells

About Ten Bells

Ten Bells was made by Hillfort Games and Acrylic Pixel Games and released on Steam in August 2024 for Windows and Mac. It is a spot-the-difference anomaly horror game in the line of The Exit 8, moved to an old English pub of dark wood, patterned wallpaper, brass bells and portraits in candlelight.

You are caught in a loop through the pub. If you find no anomalies, you go on; if you spot one, you go back the way you came. There are more than 55 anomalies, and its makers say they can be subtle, surreal, scary or deadly: bells hanging in the air, a hand reaching out of the wall by a window, a bloodied man forcing his way out of the panelling. You also have to evade traps and the pub's inhabitants.

Along the way you collect objects that hold pieces of a story, the spooky tale of the pub's ghostly inhabitants, and work toward escaping the Ten Bells. Its makers say a session runs 20 minutes to an hour, and the full game 1 hour 20 minutes to 3 hours; the store page notes ghosts and implied domestic violence and murder.

It suits players who liked The Exit 8 or the Observation Duty games and want the same paranoia in a darker, haunted setting.

How to play Ten Bells

1. Buy it on Steam for Windows or Mac.
2. Walk through the pub and look closely at every room.
3. If nothing has changed, keep going; if something has, turn back the way you came.
4. Avoid traps and the inhabitants, and collect objects to piece the story together.
5. Escape the loop and the Ten Bells.

Tips

• Learn the normal pub well on the first loops; you need to remember how it looked.
• Do not rush; some anomalies are very small.
• Pick up story objects when you see them.

Questions