To Do List

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Water the garden. Take out the trash. Then the list changes.

Platforms: Browser, PC
Stores: itch.io
Price: Pay what you want
Rated: 642 ratings on itch.io, rated 4.6 of 5
Length: under an hour
Players: 1
Controls: WASD or arrow keys to walk, Z, Space or right mouse to grab items, 1 to 5 to use items
Made by: Four Quarters
Released: 2017

What frightens A cheerful young man on a tiny island floating in the dark works through a to-do list each day: water the garden, take out the trash, fix the roof. As the days go on the chores stop making sense, an axe and a knife lie within reach, and the small routine turns dark and violent.
Content: violence.

To Do List is a free pixel-art point-and-click horror game by Four Quarters, made for Ludum Dare 38. You live on a tiny island and tick off a list of daily chores, and the chores grow stranger and darker as the days pass.

About To Do List

To Do List is a short point-and-click adventure by the Four Quarters team, made as their ninth Ludum Dare entry for Ludum Dare 38 in 2017, whose theme was A Small World. The maker describes it simply: a point-and-click adventure about a guy and his to-do list for seven days.

The world is very small. A smiling young man lives in one cosy room and a patch of garden on an island that floats in black space, with a shed, a woodpile and a few neighbours. Each morning a paper list in the corner of the screen gives him his chores, such as watering the garden, taking out the trash and fixing the roof, and you walk him about, pick things up and use them until each line is crossed off.

The horror is in how the list changes. The tools lying about the place include an axe and a kitchen knife, the friendly faces have odd things to say, and as the days go on the chores become less ordinary and the routine turns grim. It is best found out by playing, so this page says no more.

The game is free with an optional payment, in the browser and as a Windows download. The makers went on to make Loop Hero.

How to play To Do List

Open the itch.io page and press Run game, or download the Windows version.
Read the day's to-do list in the corner of the screen.
Walk with WASD or the arrow keys and grab items with Z, Space or the right mouse button.
Use carried items with the keys 1 to 5 to finish each chore, then go to bed to start the next day.

Screenshots

To Do List screenshot: the hero beside a shed and an axe on the grass while a smiling neighbour says great things are awaiting us

To Do List screenshot: the paper to-do list with water the garden crossed out, take out the trash and fix the roof still to do

Tips

Look at the list often: a crossed-out line tells you the chore counted.
Pick up everything you can; most chores need a tool from somewhere else on the island.
If the browser version does not start, play the Windows download.