What Grows in the Night

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A scarecrow is given life to tend a stranger's garden. The plants grow too well.

Platforms: PC, Mac, Linux
Price: Pay what you want
Rated: 4.5 of 5 from 51 ratings on itch.io
Length: about an hour
Players: 1
Controls: Mouse to advance the text and choose
Made by: Studio Calamari
Released: 2020

What frightens A scarecrow left alone on a barren farm is given life by a strange woman and told to grow her plants or go back to straw; the plants grow too well and too lively, and the story turns to body horror and animal death, with a feeling inside her that she should run.
Content: body horror, animal death.

A short horror visual novel by Studio Calamari, made for a Spooktober jam. A scarecrow on an abandoned farm is brought to life by a strange woman and set a task: grow her plants and be freed, or fail and go back to being straw. It begins gently, with a kind lion and a mischievous rabbit for company, and grows into body horror, with four endings.

About What Grows in the Night

What Grows in the Night is a free visual novel by Studio Calamari, made for the second Spooktober Visual Novel Jam by Devtalk+ in 2020, for Windows, Mac and Linux. It has hand-drawn backgrounds and characters, seven CGs, an original soundtrack, voice effects and four endings across about 16,000 words.

A scarecrow has stood on a farm for longer than she can remember, watching the people who lived there and scaring off birds, and went on standing after they left. Then a strange woman in a dark cloak arrives, cuts away her old clothes and gives her life, with one task: grow some plants, and she will be free of the farm. Fail, and she goes back to being a normal scarecrow.

So the scarecrow tends the garden by day and wanders the farm at night, among jack-o'-lanterns and crows, and meets a kind lion and a mischievous rabbit who make the days less empty. But the plants grow a little too well and become a little too lively, and something inside her says run. You make choices for her along the way, and they lead to one of four endings.

The makers warn of animal death and body horror. It suits readers who like autumn fairy tales that turn dark, and anyone looking for a short, free horror story to read in an evening in October.