Psychological horror Sci-fi and space horror

The World the Children Made

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Ray Bradbury's The Veldt as a short pixel-art horror story.

Platforms: Browser, PC
Price: Free
Rated: About 27,000 plays on Game Jolt; Silver at the Serious Play Conference and Game of the Year 2014 at the AIMS Game Center, Miami University, as the maker lists; Waypoint called it psychological horror,
Players: 1
Controls: Arrow keys and number keys; Esc restarts
Made by: James Earl Cox III
Released: 2014

What frightens An interactive adaptation of Ray Bradbury's The Veldt. A family moves into an automated home of the future whose nursery turns any thought into a world around the children, and as the children spend their days in it, the African veldt and its lions become more real than their parents, who slowly lose their hold on their own house.
Content: implied violence.

The World the Children Made is a free interactive adaptation of Ray Bradbury's short story The Veldt by James Earl Cox III, playable in the browser on Game Jolt. A family's automated home has a nursery that makes any world the children imagine, and the world they keep returning to is a veldt with lions.

About The World the Children Made

The World the Children Made is a short narrative game by James Earl Cox III, released on Game Jolt in 2014 as one of his hundred-games-in-five-years project. It adapts Ray Bradbury's 1950 story The Veldt and is free to play in the browser or as a download.

The story follows a family who buy a house that does everything for them. Its nursery turns thoughts into worlds: floating islands, the moon, the sea, and, more and more often, a sunlit African veldt with lions in the distance. The parents begin to worry about how much their children live in it, and about what the room has started to show.

You play it with the arrow and number keys through scenes drawn in bright, blocky pixel art with an 80s synth soundtrack. The fear is slow and domestic: a family drifting apart, children who prefer the machine, and a fantasy that grows more solid than the house around it. Readers who know the story will know where it leads.

The maker lists awards from the Serious Play Conference (Silver) and the AIMS Game Center at Miami University (Game of the Year and Best Digital Game 2014), and features on Warpdoor, Game Jolt and Newgrounds. It suits players who like short literary horror and pixel art more than chases and jumpscares.

How to play The World the Children Made

Open the game's Game Jolt page and play it in the browser, or download it.
Use the arrow keys to move through each scene and the number keys where the game asks you to choose.
Follow the family through the house and into the nursery's worlds.
Press Esc to restart if you want to see the story again.

Screenshots

The World the Children Made: the family stands in the house as a green-lit man says the nursery should be working now, hop in and try it out

The World the Children Made: two children on the grey surface of the moon with the Earth huge in the black sky

The World the Children Made: a winged girl in front of a setting sun under a floating island with a waterfall

The World the Children Made: a figure floats in a blue-green underwater world beside a sunken ship and a glowing window

Tips

Read Bradbury's The Veldt before or after; the game follows it closely and rewards knowing it.
Play with sound on: the synth soundtrack carries much of the mood.
Movement is slow, so take the scenes at their own pace.