Papers, Please creator Lucas Pope has created a free Game & Watch-style haunted house for Halloween

‘This is the night for ghosts and ghouls and the night to turn off the lights and hide because you suddenly remembered you forgot to buy sweets for trick-or-treaters this Halloween (oops!). And what better way to celebrate the occasion than with a free Game & Watch-style haunted house caper from Lucas Pope, creator of Papers, Please and Obra Dinn?

Moida Haveli with amazing title Available to play now on itch.ioChallenges players to sneak into the titular spookhouse and find their fellow Adventure Club members – all of whom are trapped after chasing their mascot turtle. “Now it’s up to you,” reads the gloriously retro-styled manual. “Sneak in quietly and save them before it’s too late!”

In terms of gameplay, Moida Mansion is a relatively simple thing, with players tasked with moving from room to room and cycling through the objects within to find each item. Searching might reveal a friend from your Adventure Club, or it might reveal a secret passage, or even a useful key. Or all this rumor might attract the attention of the mansion’s “Monsta”, in which case you’ll either have to sneak away or – if you make a ruckus when it’s near – run away.

However, for all its simplicity, the Moida Mansion is strangely compelling, and I spent the last 20 minutes having fun dodging Monsta and exploring the house to uncover its secrets. It’s surprisingly atmospheric (and just a little bit stressful) for a game with rudimentary LCD-style visuals, virtually zero animation, and minimal sound. Furthermore, Pope creates impressive variety from a relatively limited number of visual elements – and even better, the mansion changes each game. If this thing was real I would buy it immediately!

Of course, this isn’t Pope’s first Game & Watch genre endeavor; Acclaimed Designer created a free demake Off Papers, Please last year, in celebration of the dystopian doc thriller’s 10th anniversary. More recently, they released their Playdate-exclusive puzzler Mars After Midnight – “a cute, silly game about community”, as described by Christian Donlan put it Back in March.