Welcome Home Jacob

About Welcome Home Jacob

Welcome Home Jacob is a short horror game by Iwo Plaza (Ives'Games), made in under 72 hours for the 2016 Meatly Jam and written by hand in HTML, JavaScript and WebGL. It plays in the browser on Game Jolt, and its maker describes it as a dark and unnerving experience meant for mature players.

You are Jacob, a young man with glasses and a torch, back in a house that should be familiar: a living room with a sofa and a staircase, a kitchen, a hall of closed doors and dark windows. It is drawn in side-view pixel art, and the torch beam is most of what you can see.

Something is in the house with you. Its face, a grinning rabbit skull with hollow eyes, is the game's title art. You follow sounds through the rooms, hear it go upstairs, and when it comes back the prompt to press E and hide in a wardrobe is the only help you get. Players remember the hiding most, and argue about what the abrupt, strange ending means.

It is a jam game, short and with a few rough edges players point out, but it was picked among the jam's favourites in a Game Jolt Fireside post. It suits players who like quiet 2D horror in a home, with one creature and somewhere to hide.

How to play Welcome Home Jacob

1. Open the game's Game Jolt page and press Play; it runs in the browser.
2. Press Space to start.
3. Walk through the rooms and light the way with Jacob's torch.
4. When the creature comes, press E at a wardrobe or closet to hide until it has gone.
5. Keep exploring the house until the story reaches its end.

Tips

• Stay near a wardrobe when you hear it moving; you will not outrun it.
• If the ending puzzles you, play it again: it is short, and players read it in several ways.

Questions