Sötét Képernyő (Dark Screen)

Description

Sötét Képernyő means "dark screen". When a phone or laptop screen goes black, you see yourself in it.

This is an anthology of nine short horror stories, each about 10 to 15 minutes long. A smart speaker that keeps listening after the power cut. A stranger who knows where you will be at 6 o'clock. Shopping centre cameras that are sure they saw you steal something. A class group chat that turns on someone. A voice on the phone that sounds exactly like your mum. Each story is a different way the technology around you can be turned against you, and each one ends by telling you exactly what happened and how to protect yourself in real life.

It is psychological horror: darkness, sounds, things at the edge of your vision, and the slow feeling that something knows too much. There is no blood and no violence, at most one or two jump scares per episode, and a quiet mode that removes them completely without changing the story.

Controls

Mouse to look around (click the picture first), W A S D to walk, Shift to run, E to use, F for the flashlight, Esc to pause. The phone and laptop episodes are played with the mouse only. Headphones help a lot. Works best in Chrome or Edge on a computer; it does not work on phones.

The episodes

1. Késő esti szerelés (Late-night build): a power cut, a flat in the dark, and a computer to build before morning.
2. Mindig figyel (Always listening): a clip of your voice is online, and you never posted it.
3. Valaki tudja (Someone knows): played on a phone. A stranger knows your school, your street and your Saturday.
4. Kamerák (Cameras): locked in a shopping centre after closing, and every screen shows your face.
5. A csoportchat (The group chat): played on a laptop. The class group has a new target. Will you join in?
6. Zárolva (Locked): a school sleepover, one click, and every screen in the building turns red.
7. Végtelen hírfolyam (Endless feed): played on a phone. Just one more clip.
8. Anya hangja (Mum's voice): 22:40 at your grandmother's flat. The phone rings.
9. Tükörkép (Reflection): a video of you that you never made. Everything from the other eight comes back.

Episodes open in order. The walking episodes and the phone and laptop episodes take turns. After the finale, try the door.

Features

• A lo-fi, PSX-style look with hand-painted stills.
• Quiet mode, subtitles for every sound, brightness and projector settings, bigger text option.
• A calm end screen after every episode: what really happened, three things to do in real life, and where to get help.
• Key words explained on hover, with the Hungarian term next to the English one.
• Progress saves in your browser. A save code moves it to another computer.

For teachers

Sötét Képernyő was made for Digital Culture lessons with 12 to 15 year olds (grades 7 to 9) at a school in Budapest, one episode per lesson. The classroom version adds lesson codes so a class moves through the series together, plus a teacher guide for every episode, reflection sheets and an offline board that collects students' progress from their save codes. If you'd like to use it with a class, leave a comment.

Each episode deals with a real risk: oversharing, smart devices, face recognition, cyberbullying, phishing and ransomware, addictive feeds, voice-clone scams and deepfakes. Please play an episode yourself before showing it to a class. Episode 5 (bullying) and Episode 8 (a scam on a grandparent) can feel close to home for some students.

Credits

Music by Clement Panchout. Sound effects by FilmCow and Helton Yan. 3D models from the PSX House Props and Interior packs, PSX Tech by Pizza Doggy, the PSX School Kit by heyheythere, the Soviet Apartment pack by Ice Ching, PSX Characters, and Quaternius (characters' animations and the Stylized Nature kit, CC0). Textures by Screaming Brain Studios and Craig Snedeker (CC0). Sky by CraftPix.net. Font m5x7 by Daniel Linssen. Built with three.js. The painted pictures were made with an image generator and the game was built with Claude. The full list is in the game's Credits screen.

The easter egg links to "Still Alive" by Jonathan Coulton (Portal, Valve 2007) on YouTube; the song is not part of the game.

All apps, companies, people and messages in the game are invented.