Controls: Arrow keys to move and Enter to interact; mouse, gamepad and touch also workOpen on algebrafalcon.itch.io ↗
PsychologicalShort

Time is Solid Here

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Step into surreal paintings and help uneasy figures move on.

What frightens: You walk a long hallway of paintings and step into each one to help a troubled figure move on; the art is warped and dreamlike, and the people you meet carry grief, regret and a quiet wrongness that builds as the game goes.

Content: disturbing themes, surreal imagery.

Time is Solid Here is a free psychological horror puzzle game you play in the browser. From a long yellow hallway you enter a set of surreal paintings, each holding someone who needs help to move on, and you solve their puzzles while the art turns stranger around you.

About Time is Solid Here

Time is Solid Here is a short horror puzzle game by AlgebraFalcon and h3ming, built in RPG Maker. It opens in a long hallway hung with paintings and a floating head who talks of monster trucks and places in between. Each painting is a small world with a figure in need of moving on, and your task is to work out how to help them.

It plays as a top-down adventure. You walk the halls, enter the paintings and solve puzzles tied to the person inside each one, reading what they tell you and piecing together why they are stuck. Hidden secrets change how you see its world, and a run takes about half an hour.

The horror is psychological and dreamlike. The hand-painted and AI-assisted art warps faces and rooms into something uneasy, the writing circles grief and regret, and lines like a note that reads about seeing someone on the other side give the quiet scenes a weight that stays with you. There are no monsters to fight; the unease comes from the people and the places themselves.

It suits players who like story-driven, surreal horror and short art games more than action or jump scares. It was selected for the Goethe-Institut's Stillstand/Standstill Project Exhibition, and it runs right in the browser, with Windows and macOS downloads on the same page.

How to play Time is Solid Here

  1. Click into the game frame to start in the hallway.
  2. Walk with the arrow keys and talk to the floating head to learn what to do.
  3. Enter a painting and explore the small world inside it.
  4. Solve the puzzle that helps the figure in that painting move on.
  5. Return to the hallway and work through the remaining paintings to the end.

Screenshots

Time is Solid Here screenshot: a top-down room where the player figure is a floating severed head, beside a large warped portrait of an old man, with dialogue about word from upstairs or downstairs
Time is Solid Here cover: a long-necked figure in black stands on a yellow background casting a scribbled shadow, with the title and a Goethe Institute Standstill Project selection laurel
Time is Solid Here screenshot: a long-nosed figure and a pinned note inside a painting on red damask wallpaper, with the line Forgive me, Ava, for I will see you on the other side
Time is Solid Here screenshot: a long dim hallway hung with paintings, the title painted across the floor and a menu reading Enter, Carry On, Options

Tips

  • Read everything the figures say; the clues to their puzzles are in their words.
  • Look for hidden secrets, which can change how you see the story.
  • Take it slowly; this is a game to sit with rather than rush.

Questions

Is Time is Solid Here free?

It is pay what you want on itch.io, so you can play it in the browser for nothing or leave the makers a tip.

How long is Time is Solid Here?

About half an hour, according to its itch.io page.

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