Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion

Overview

Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion, originally released as Spooky's House of Jump Scares, is an indie, comedic, freeware first-person survival horror game developed and digitally released by Lag Studios for the PC via Desura on October 24, 2014, with a Steam release on July 28, 2015 under the new name.

A deconstruction of several horror game tropes at the time, Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion tasks players with traversing the winding, dark, procedurally-generated corridors of the titular mansion, under the watchful eye of the cute, mischievous ghost girl, Spooky. As the title suggests, the game employs a variety of jump scares, several of which are more comical than violent. Created in GameMaker, the game also features a retro aesthetic with simple, low-poly 3D mazes and sprites.

As players progress deeper in the mansion, however, the game begins to break its cute and comical facade and spiral into darker, more violent themes. As players contend to new puzzles and explore new lore, several of which are based on other horror games (such as Silent Hill and Resident Evil) or Internet creepypastas, they must contend against several hideous creatures set out to kill them.

The game later received two premium DLC expansions: Karamari Hospital (released on December 29 2015) and The Doll House (developed by KIRA and released on October 2, 2020). It also received a Unity Engine remake in 2017 by Albino Moose Games, known as Spooky's Jump Scare Mansion: HD Renovation.

Gameplay

The bulk of the game comprises of traveling a seemingly endless mansion, often through corridors and rooms that bear striking similarities to each other. The overall goal is to traverse 1000 rooms, without being murdered by a handful of 'specimens': the name given to the assorted ghouls and psychopaths that roam the depths of the mansion. Failure to avoid these creatures result in a one of many horrific deaths. While players can pick up at the last save, the order in which the rooms appear are random.

The game is broken up into 50-room sections, with an elevator that transports the player between each one, as well as acting as a save room. Most of the rooms and corridors are small, linear and identical--a point noted by an unseen character early in the game--though as the game progresses, players are acquainted with a growing variety, some with puzzles and branching rooms.