What Girls Do in the Dark

Step into the peculiar and unnerving world of "What Girls Do in the Dark," a free indie horror experience that redefines slumber party nightmares. Created for the HQ_Residential_House Game Jam and available on itch.io, this browser-based chiller throws you into the shoes of a teenage girl who’s arrived late to a stranger’s eerie sleepover—a fear many can relate to, but here it’s taken to haunting extremes.

From your very first moments, the game envelops you in an atmosphere thick with tension, curiosity, and the subtle dread of social uncertainty. The hand-drawn art style pulses with a dreamy, unsettling quality: familiar domestic scenes twist into uncanny rituals as shadows curl in the corners of every memory. The game is packed with memorable visuals—liminal bedrooms, flickering lights, and strange faces half-lit by candle glow—all rendered in pixelated perfection. Every choice you make branches the narrative into darker alleys or fleeting hope, letting you shape your fate against nameless, shifting horrors.

You’ll uncover sinister secrets through cryptic dialogues, explore haunted hallways, and deal with surreal twists that keep you guessing at every turn. Looming over the gameplay is a masterful tension between the nostalgic innocence of youthful sleepovers and occult, body-horror terrors lurking just out of sight. The sound design masterfully blends ambient unease with the discordant laughter of strangers, keeping your nerves taught as you inch deeper into the heart of the house. The difficulty level is perfectly pitched—challenging but accessible, with clever puzzle elements and subtle story cues guiding you as you navigate this nightmarish coming-of-age tale.

With no downloads or installs required, you can instantly immerse yourself in this haunting journey—just open in your browser and let the horrors unfold. And if you truly want to experience the dread as the developer intended, switch to fullscreen and zoom out for the full, chilling effect. If you crave spine-tingling narrative adventures or simply want a fresh take on indie horror, "What Girls Do in the Dark" invites you to confront your fears where the familiar meets the frightening. Dare to play, share your discoveries, and see if you can survive what lurks in the shadows.