For a quick Halloween game, start with one of the browser-playable picks below; for a coding experiment, open its linked source and check the project’s license before reusing or redistributing anything. This collection of 13 compact spooky games was published by Lee Reilly on the GitHub Blog on October 29, 2021. Its platform labels and availability notes reflect that 2021 article, not a guarantee that every game or build still works today.
Pick a game by how you want to play
Reilly presented the games as coffee-break entertainment and examples for people learning game development. The article says they were generally made in a few days by individuals or small teams for game jams. The list mixes browser games with downloadable builds, and its descriptions offer a range of styles rather than thirteen conventional survival-horror games.
| # | Preview | Product | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
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Resident Evil Requiem Amazon Exclusive Edition - PlayStation 5 | $49.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 2 |
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Project Songbird - PlayStation 5 | $29.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 3 |
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Cronos - PlayStation 5 | $28.15 | Buy on Amazon |
| 4 |
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Resident Evil 4 - PS5 | $15.99 | Buy on Amazon |
| 5 |
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Resident Evil 7 biohazard Gold Edition - PlayStation 5 | $15.99 | Buy on Amazon |
- Want a browser game? The 2021 article lists web play for Chamber, Paralunar, Q1K3, Hellevator, Chess Hellevator, Landlord, The Maze of Space Goblins, Deviant, Life Sacrificer, and Sentimental Wake.
- Want to play with someone else? From the Shadows is described as a cooperative platform game built around light-and-shadow puzzles.
- Prefer action? Look at the FPS-style Landlord or Ultra Nightmare, the browser Quake reimagining Q1K3, or the demon-filled elevator game Hellevator.
- Want puzzles or a change of perspective? Chess Hellevator uses chess rules, The Maze of Space Goblins blends Sokoban and Match-3 ideas, and Deviant is described as reverse horror.
- Want a coding example? The entries include projects made with Haxe, GDScript, JavaScript, C#, Lua, Java, and Ruby. The language and engine listed for each game are historical descriptions from the 2021 article.
The 13 games
1. Chamber
A Ludum Dare game described as a 72-hour project by two people. Its loop has you exterminating enemies and collecting blood to help a ghost. Reilly listed web and Windows play, with Heaps and Haxe as its technology. The 72-hour figure is the GitHub Blog article’s 2021 report.
2. Paralunar
Explore a haunted castle on the moon, with fast movement and ghosts. Reilly reported that it placed first for gameplay in the 2020 Game Off. The article listed web, Windows, and Linux builds, and Godot with GDScript. For a code-edit experiment, it points to changing enemy speeds in ghost.gd.
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- Amazon Exclusive - 2 sided poster included in every game!
- Grace Ashcroft, an FBI intelligence analyst who is introverted and easily scared, representing a new type of character for the Resident Evil series. Grace will experience horror from the same perspective as the player as she learns to overcome her fears throughout the course of the story.
- For the first time ever in Resident Evil history, players will be able to freely switch between both first- and third-person perspectives throughout the game.
- An Anniversary to Remember: With March 2026 marking the Resident Evil series’ 30-year anniversary, Resident Evil Requiem marks its own milestone in the franchise.
- Pre-orders for Resident Evil Requiem are now open, with the bonus of Grace’s costume: Apocalypse. Please note that the picture weapon does not come with the costume, but it can be obtained in-game.
3. From the Shadows
This cooperative platform game turns light and shadow into puzzle mechanics. It was created for the 2020 Gamagora Game Show. The 2021 article listed Windows and macOS and said it was then free on Steam; that historical availability statement does not establish whether it is free or available there now. Its listed technology is Unity and C#.
4. Q1K3
A tiny browser reimagining of Quake, built from less than 13 kB of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, image, and sound assets, according to Reilly’s 2021 article. It is listed as a web game written in JavaScript. The article gives examples of edits to make the player invulnerable or increase ammunition.
Rank #2
- A dark, enthralling 4-5 hour narrative to keep you hooked and guessing until the end. Gorgeous visuals as you traverse numerous and diverse environments, presented with a cinematic, film-like aesthetic. Ranged and melee combat with upgradeable weapons to help you survive your nightmarish journey.
- A stellar voice cast, starring Valerie Rose Lohman (What Remains of Edith Finch, Wolfenstein: Youngblood), Jonah Scott (Dying Light 2: Stay Human, Date Everything), and Aleks Le (Persona 3: Reload, Marvel Rivals, Ghost of Yotei).
- A beautifully dynamic and haunting soundtrack composed and performed by Jacob Noska, and Jonah Henthorne: members of the band Auric Echoes.
- The puzzles you encounter are more than your standard key hunt. Project Songbird rewards those with an eye for detail, making each puzzle a challenge of creativity and wits.
- The combat of Project Songbird offers a variety of approaches inspired by the classics of the survival horror genre. Melee and gunplay is slow and weighty, and ammo is incredibly scarce. However, combat isn't your only option, as you have a multitude of tools at your disposal to aid in sneaking past any creatures that wish to do you harm.
5. Hellevator
Made for Ludum Dare 48, this demon-filled elevator game has you casting spells and cranking a generator. The 2021 article listed web and Windows play and identified Unity and C# as its technology.
6. Chess Hellevator
An elevator-themed game that follows chess rules, associated with Ludum Dare 48. Reilly listed web, Windows, Linux, and macOS versions, with Godot and GDScript.
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- Cronos: The New Dawn is a brutal third-person survival horror where you fight for the future by salvaging the past. Burn monsters before they merge. Extract souls from the living. Adapt or die.
- Set in a grim world where Eastern European brutalism meets retro-futurist technology, Cronos: The New Dawn lets you experience a gripping story that straddles the line between past and future.
- The enemies you’ll encounter are nightmarish creatures, born from the remnants of humanity – defeating them will require you to make full use of your arsenal.
- The creatures you kill won’t stay dead for long. Fallen enemies can be absorbed by others - through a grotesque process called Merging - to become faster, tougher, and far deadlier.
- This physical edition of Cronos: The New Dawn comes with bonus in-game content and a set of collectible stickers.
7. Landlord
This deliberately low-resolution FPS dungeon crawler was described as a 2020 LowRezJam game. Reilly noted that the jam imposed a 64×64 resolution limit. The article listed web, Windows, and macOS play, and LÖVE with Lua.
8. The Maze of Space Goblins
A browser puzzle game mixing Sokoban-style movement with Match-3 mechanics. The article includes a code edit for starting at a later level and lists JavaScript as its language.
Rank #4
- Reawaken a Classic – Resident Evil 4 preserves the essence of the original game, now reconstructed using Capcom’s proprietary RE Engine to deliver realistic visuals and additional narrative depth to the iconic story that was not possible at the time of the original release.
- Modernized Gameplay – The team from 2019’s Resident Evil 2 returns to build upon the series’ modern approach to survival horror. Engage in frenzied combat with the Ganados villagers, explore a European village gripped by madness, and solve puzzles to access new areas and collect useful items for Leon and Ashley’s constant struggle to survive.
- Overwhelming Hordes – Face hordes of rabid enemies that threaten to overwhelm Leon with even more diverse methods of attack than in the original release.
- Survive on a Knife’s Edge – Years of intense training have taught Leon new ways to use his knife, helping to even the odds against the unrelenting onslaught of enemies. By parrying enemy attacks, you can avoid debilitating damage and evade lunging enemies seeking to grab Leon and hold him in place. Make smart use of scavenged knives to deliver precise finishing moves on vulnerable enemies, and even use the element of surprise to quietly dispatch unsuspecting foes before they break.
- Survive on a Knife’s Edge – Years of intense training have taught Leon new ways to use his knife, helping to even the odds against the unrelenting onslaught of enemies. By parrying enemy attacks, you can avoid debilitating damage and evade lunging enemies seeking to grab Leon and hold him in place. Make smart use of scavenged knives to deliver precise finishing moves on vulnerable enemies, and even use the element of surprise to quietly dispatch unsuspecting foes before they break.
9. Ultra Nightmare
A blocky FPS with visual inspiration from the Doom and Wolfenstein era, including floating skull enemies. It was made for the 2020 libGDC Jam. The 2021 article listed Windows, Linux, and macOS builds, and libGDX with Java.
10. Deviant
This reverse-horror game puts you in the role of a robot becoming murderously unstable. Reilly listed web, Windows, macOS, and Linux versions, made with Unity and C#.
Best Value
- FEAR COMES HOME -- Fear, combat, exploration, and item management: these are the four pillars of survival horror, a genre that has never been more masterfully executed than in the gameplay of Resident Evil. The horror continues in the ground-breaking Resident Evil 7. Step into the new Isolated View and experience true survival horror in a world created by the all-new RE Engine.
- DEEP IN THE BAYOU - When Ethan Winters opened his inbox, the last thing he expected was to find an email from his wife; she had been missing for three years. The message was simple: "Come get me," and an address in Louisiana. This leads Ethan to a decrepit mansion in the heart of the bayou. The place has a seriously creepy vibe, but Ethan continues his search – until a stranger attacks him and knocks him unconscious. Ethan has no idea what awaits him when he wakes up...for he is now in the clutches of the Baker family.
- A NEW PERSPECTIVE -- In RESIDENT EVIL 7, we're changing the way you interact with the world. For this next major entry in the series, play from a first-person point of view, dramatically increasing your ability to become fully absorbed in the world we have created.
- NEW FOR PLAYSTATION5 – Upgraded features new to the PlayStation5 version of the game include a higher frame rate, 3D audio, added ray tracing, and engaging DualSense support for Haptic Feedback and Adaptive Triggers.
11. The Salatroitsk Incident
A PS1-style horror game set in a fictional Russian city after a nuclear incident. Its described objectives include collecting radioactive samples and avoiding a mutant. The 2021 article listed Windows and macOS builds and Unity with C#.
12. Life Sacrificer
A procedurally generated dungeon roguelike from a Blackthornprod game jam. Reilly listed web, Windows, macOS, and Linux play, with Godot and GDScript. The article shows a code change that raises the player’s health value.
13. Sentimental Wake
A small, challenging platform game with weapons and timed jumps, associated with the 2020 LowRezJam. The article listed browser play and Ruby as its language.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What “hack” means here—and what to check first
In the original article, “hack” means experimenting with a game’s code: changing enemy speed, player damage handling, ammunition, starting level, or health. Those examples are code edits, not evidence that a game supports cheats through a menu or that modifications are authorized for online play.
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- Open the game’s official page or linked repository and confirm that the game and the relevant build are still available.
- Before changing code, read the repository’s license. The 2021 article does not identify licenses, and source being visible does not by itself grant permission to reuse or redistribute it.
- Keep experiments local and follow any terms attached to the game. Do not assume a code change is acceptable in multiplayer or online play.
The game descriptions, platform labels, jam details, and code-edit examples above come from Lee Reilly’s October 29, 2021 GitHub Blog article: 13 short and scary games plus source to play (or hack) this Halloween. That article does not establish present-day link status, compatibility, Steam availability, or source licenses, so check each project’s own page for current details.
Quick Recap
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
