The Hat Man - trip reports
READ · FIND · GO · HOLD HIM BACK · WAKE THEM
Every night, someone posts that they can see him.
You go where he goes.
You go where he goes.
Two years ago you took too much and lived. He didn't forget you, and now you can see him too: the man in the hat, the one who stands in doorways and watches people who can't wake up.
So every night you read the board. Someone is posting while it happens. Their words give away where they are. Find the house before he reaches the bed, then keep him at the edge of your eye until they come back up.
Read the thread. Find the house.
- A live thread on a drug forum: one person, still typing, and the replies piling up under them. Every night it's a different person, a different forum and a different story.
- Nobody posts an address. Click the words that give them away (a street, a sound, a name) and they go into your notes.
- Dig through their post history. Search their username. Open the photo they posted: it still knows where it was taken.
- Pick the one house on the map that fits everything they said. A wrong door costs time, and every minute you spend reading, their heart beats harder.
He only moves when you look at him
- Keep him at the edge of your eye, all of him in view, and he can't take a step. Look straight at him and he's only dark, and free.
- You can't stare forever. Your eyes burn, and you blink. A blink is all he needs.
- Old remedies, the kind people swear by on the old threads: shoes turned to the door, a line of salt, a colander he has to count, a knife under the pillow, a red ribbon over the bed, a lamp that drives him back (its bulb takes longer to come back every night).
- Every night a different set of them, and he comes in a different way: the door, the closet, the window.
Bring them back up
They're too deep to wake all at once. Each step only reaches them at its time on the clock, so until then you hold him off.
- Hold their toe until it moves. Breathe with them, in and out, until their chest follows yours. Count their fingers to five, three times.
- Call their phone and say their name. Some nights, only their name said backwards reaches them.
- Get them through, and the next morning, they post again.
Five nights
| ACT I | dry as a bone | He comes through the door. He watches. That's all he ever does. |
| ACT II | red as a beet | Everything has a flush to it now. He has learned another way in. |
| ACT III | hot as a hare | The air ripples. Tonight he starts outside, looking up at the window. |
| ACT IV | blind as a bat | The lamp is dead. You'll only see his eyes. Not all of the eyes are his. |
| ACT V | mad as a hatter | There's a new thread on the board. You don't remember writing it. |
Never the same night twice
- Every run makes new people, new threads, new forums, new photos, new streets and new rooms, along with what they hallucinate and how he comes for them.
- Finish a run to unlock game+: every night's steps and remedies shuffled, every run.
- Everything you see and hear is made by the game as it runs: the art is drawn in code and the music and sound are synthesised. There's no stock art, and nothing is recorded.
- A soundtrack mode on the main menu: play the score, remix two tracks and a loop live, and record what you make.
How to play
Mouse look by moving to the edge of the screen · click to use, take and put down · hold for the holding steps
A / D turn · P pause · F full screen (or the button, top right) · N fold your notes · Right-click / Esc put down what you're holding
Phone & tablet drag the room to look · tap to use · press and hold for the holding steps · turn it sideways
A / D turn · P pause · F full screen (or the button, top right) · N fold your notes · Right-click / Esc put down what you're holding
Phone & tablet drag the room to look · tap to use · press and hold for the holding steps · turn it sideways
A run is five nights. It saves at the start of each night and each morning, and the main menu offers continue. Options: text size, reduce flashing, screen warp off, a gentler heart, look speed. Best with headphones, lights off.
Content note
Depicts drug overdose (diphenhydramine), hallucinations, and flashing images (there's an option to reduce them). The game doesn't make any of it look good. If you or someone you know is in trouble, call your local emergency number. In the US, Poison Control is 1-800-222-1222.
Plays in the browser on desktop, phone and tablet, or download it to play offline. A Perky Goblin game.
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Development log
- The Hat Man: Trip Reports - Beta - Out now9 days ago
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