01THE STORY SO FAR

Longmont, Colorado. Night. The streetlamps gave up hours ago, and the only lights still burning belong to three buildings that should have been empty for decades: the Opera House on Main Street, the Sugar Mill at the edge of town, and the Hotel Imperial, whose transom glows like a lit match over a locked door.

Inside each of them waits The Games Master — a showman in a black suit and a red skull mask, leaning on a cane topped with a grinning skull. He has scattered his keepsakes through every floor of every building: opera programmes, factory punch cards, hotel room keys. He wants you to collect them. That's the game. He invented it, he referees it, and he plays for the other side.

...the town is his board. you are his piece...

Find every item in a building and its exit will accept you. Survive all three buildings and the night ends. There is exactly one rule, and breaking it is how most guests end their stay: do not look at him.

02HOW A NIGHT UNFOLDS

From the title screen, press Enter and you'll wake on south Main Street. The town is the hub between stages — walk it freely; nothing out here can catch you. Each building entrance glows with a gold arrow. Stand at a door and press Space to step inside.

The buildings unlock in order. The Opera House is always open. Beat it, and the chains fall off the Sugar Mill. Beat the Mill, and the Hotel Imperial starts taking guests. Locked doors show a red arrow and tell you what they want first.

03CONTROLS

INPUT	ACTION
W / S  or  ↑ / ↓	Move forward / back
A / D  or  ← / →	Strafe left / right
Q / E  ·  Mouse  ·  Shift+strafe	Turn. Click the screen once to capture the mouse.
Space or F	Collect item · use stairs · enter a building · escape through an exit
Tab (hold)	Floor map — 3 charges per building, ~3 seconds each. Free and unlimited in town.
M	Mute audio (you will regret losing the heartbeat warning)
R	After a win or a catch — return to town
Esc	Release the mouse

There is no run button. You are always walking briskly — and that is, mercifully, faster than he walks. Usually.

04THE TOWN OF LONGMONT

The overworld is safe ground — the only place in the game where being caught is impossible. Use it to breathe. Stress drains slowly out here (and any panic you carry out of a building is capped well below the danger line).

BUILDING	WHERE	UNLOCKED BY
The Opera House	West side of Main St, the grand stone facade	Always open
The Sugar Mill	South-east, inside the fenced works yard (enter the gate on its west side)	Finishing the Opera House
The Hotel Imperial	East side of Main St, opposite the Opera House	Finishing the Sugar Mill

05THE ONE RULE

Breaking a chase: turn a corner, put architecture between you. After 4 seconds without seeing you he gives up the sprint and walks to the last place he saw you, pokes around for about 5 seconds, then returns to his rounds. He is slower than you in open ground — a chase you can't survive is a chase that ended in a dead end.

If he does catch you, there is a 4% chance the stage lights misfire and he warps away to another floor instead — the screen flashes LUCKY. Do not build a strategy on a coin that lands on its edge.

06DOSSIER: THE GAMES MASTER

There is one of him, and he is always somewhere in the building with you. He moves between floors like you do — by walking to a staircase. Reading his sprite tells you his facing; reading his behaviour tells you his state:

07THE STRESS SYSTEM

The thin bar under the HUD is your nervous system, scored 0–100. The Games Master doesn't just hunt your body — he farms your fear.

WHAT RAISES IT

SOURCE	EFFECT
Him, nearby	Up to +7/second when he's on your floor within 7 tiles — scaling with closeness
Being chased	+11/second. Long chases cook you even when you escape
Scare events	+10 to +16 instantly (see below)
The street stalker	+12 if you approach or stare him down

WHAT LOWERS IT

Distance and time. Stress decays about 1.6 points per second whenever he isn't near and isn't chasing. Entering a building always starts you at a baseline of 18. The cure for a screaming heartbeat is two floors of separation and twenty seconds of quiet collecting.

SCARE EVENTS

Every 22–46 seconds inside a building, the house plays a trick. None of them can hurt you — except through the meter:

• The lights die — the world goes near-black for a second or so.
• A whisper — ...he is counting your steps... drifts across the screen.
• A figure ahead — the Games Master flickers into view 6–11 tiles in front of you and is gone in half a second. It was never him. It still counts against your nerves — and it cannot trigger a chase, so don't bolt blindly into a real corner.

08YOUR TOOLS

THE MAP (TAB)

• Three charges per building, about three seconds each. The pips in the parchment corner count what's left. Town maps are free.
• The game does not pause. Never open the map mid-chase.
• Best uses: one charge on arriving at a complex floor; one charge when hunting your last two items; one held in reserve for the post-escalation endgame.
• He shows up red only if he's on your floor. A clean map with no red square is the safest news in the game — sweep fast while it's true.

READING THE HUD

SIGNAL	MEANING
Floor name (top left)	Where you are; the bar beneath it is stress
Pips (top centre)	Items found on this floor
Counter (top right)	Building total — drives his escalation, so it's also his power meter
DON'T LOOK (flashing)	He is within 6 tiles. Your camera is now a weapon pointed at yourself
RUN	Self-explanatory
Red edge-glow / vignette	Proximity heat — brighter is closer
Blue arrows	Stairs. Gold arrows: building doors (town). Bottom bar: any Space prompt in range

THE LUCKY BREAK

One catch in twenty-five (4%) fails: white flash, LUCKY stamp, and he is hurled to a random other floor with his timers reset. It is a gift, not a mechanic. Say thank you and change floors before he walks back.

09STAGE I — THE OPERA HOUSE

1. Grand Foyer — open stone hall, reception desk, side rooms. The exit doors are here.
2. The Auditorium — stage, crimson curtains, private boxes. Long sightlines: his 9-tile gaze loves this room.
3. Upper Gallery — wood-panelled warren of salons. Short sightlines favour you.
4. The Flies — rigging loft over the stage. Cramped catwalk corridors; never get cornered at the loft's dead ends.

STRATEGY

• Work top-down. The exit is on Floor 1 — climb to The Flies early and sweep downward, so the escalated endgame happens next to the front doors, not four staircases from them.
• The Auditorium's open hall is his best hunting ground and yours: you can see him from far outside his 9-tile trigger range. Track him at a distance, then sweep the half of the room he isn't in.
• Curtained stage pockets and box seats break line of sight instantly — duck behind crimson when the vignette flares.
• Both staircases sit mid-floor on the east and west walls. If he camps one, the other is a full room away — always know your second exit.

10STAGE II — THE SUGAR MILL

1. Beet Yard — open concrete yard, scattered mound pillars.
2. Wash House — nested flume corridors. A maze; spend a map charge here.
3. Slice Floor — machine blocks in tight lanes.
4. Diffusion Hall — ranks of vat columns; rhythmic, easy to learn.
5. Lime House — four kiln chambers off a central crossing. Chamber doors face the middle corridor — in and out fast.
6. Evaporator Gallery — pipe-lined halls (pictured below).
7. Pan House — open floor, centrifuge pillars.
8. Sugar Tower — office warren below, crystal vault above. The roof hatch is at the tower's north face.

STRATEGY

• The exit is at the top. Invert the Opera plan: clear from the Beet Yard upward, leaving the Sugar Tower's five cards for last. Your final pickup should be steps from the roof hatch.
• Eight floors dilute him — he can only haunt one at a time, and his 82% follow bias means you control where he goes. Bounce two floors away when he arrives; sweep in the gap.
• The Wash House and the Tower offices are chase-killers for him — tight corners shred his line of sight. They're also ambush heaven: walk those item rooms wall-first.
• Single ladders link each floor (alternating east/west walls). Floor-change camping is deadlier here than anywhere — give every ladder landing two seconds of side-eye before you commit.
• The kiln chambers in the Lime House have one door each. Check the corridor crossing for him before entering a kiln. Never be inside one when the whisper hits.

11STAGE III — THE HOTEL IMPERIAL

1. The Lobby — mahogany and gilt, the front desk island.
2. Grand Ballroom — column grid, stage at the north wall.
3. Kitchen & Dining — dining tables west, kitchen counters and cold store east.
4. Guest Floor II — classic double-loaded corridor, rooms both sides.
5. Guest Floor III — ring corridor around an inner block. You can always run a full loop — so can he.
6. Guest Floor IV — cross-corridors, four quadrant suites.
7. Honeymoon Suites — four grand suites off a cross of corridors.
8. Maids' Quarters — narrow cell slots; half are dead ends. Memorize which.
9. Service Attic — crate maze under the roof beams.
10. The Penthouse — the Master Suite's double doors stand at the north centre. All 40 keys open them.

STRATEGY

• Climb as you clear. Exit's on 10: sweep 1 → 9 in order and save the four Penthouse keys for the very end. At full escalation you want one staircase between you and the Master Suite, not nine.
• Ten floors is your biggest safety margin in the game — vertical distance is free stress decay. Whenever the heartbeat starts, two flights of separation resets the encounter.
• Guest corridors are eye-contact tunnels: if he's in your corridor within 9 tiles, you're lit. Cross corridors by entering rooms and cutting through the connecting doors.
• The Maids' Quarters punish panic — three of the cell slots are blind pockets. Walk them calm (under 55 stress) or skip them until he's floors away.
• In the Ballroom and Lobby, use the columns the way he can't: orbiting a single column breaks both his line of sight and his lunge line.
• The final climb — keys 37, 38, 39, 40 — happens against a Games Master at +55% speed who changes floors every ~6 seconds at an 82% bias toward you. Pre-plan: map charge, route, both staircases, then take the keys in one continuous run. Hesitation collects you.

12THE SURVIVOR'S COMPENDIUM

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

• 1. The camera is a trigger. Within 9 tiles, looking is losing. Navigate dangerous rooms with him deliberately kept off-screen — strafe with your shoulder to him.
• 2. You are faster. Corners aren't. He never out-runs you; he out-positions you. Before entering any room, know its second exit. No second exit? Then it's a vault, and you go in only when the map shows no red.
• 3. Walls are armour. Line of sight gates both the chase trigger and chase persistence. One wall, four seconds, and any pursuit dies.
• 4. Stress is a leash you hold. Below 45 you're invisible to everything but his eyes. Above 65 you're a lighthouse. The difference is usually one floor of distance held for twenty seconds.
• 5. He goes where you were. 82% floor-follow means your floor history is bait. Pattern: arrive, sweep half, let him arrive, leave, sweep elsewhere, return for the rest.
• 6. Items are traps after the midpoint. 40% ambush odds on his stops means late-game pickups deserve a corner-peek first. If he's lurking, collect elsewhere — ambushes expire in 9 seconds.
• 7. Respect arrival lag. When he takes the stairs to your floor, he might camp the landing for 6 seconds. When fleeing to stairs, prefer the staircase he didn't just use.
• 8. Scares lie; the meter doesn't. Flickers, whispers, phantom silhouettes — fake. The stress they add — real. After any scare, glance at your bar before your next move.
• 9. Bank your maps. Three charges: one to learn the floor, one to find the stragglers, one for the endgame. Spending two on the same floor is how runs end.
• 10. The last item starts the real game. Escalation peaks; he is fast, restless, and probably en route. Touch the final item only when the path to the exit is already in your head.

READING HIM WITHOUT LOOKING

You have four senses that aren't eye contact, and none of them trigger him: the red vignette (distance-scaled proximity), the stress bar's climb rate (faster = closer), the DON'T LOOK warning (inside 6 tiles), and the map's red square. Veterans cross entire floors on instruments alone, camera glued to the safe wall.

THE OPENING, MIDGAME, ENDGAME

PHASE	HIS SPEED	YOUR PLAY
Opening (0–30%)	Slow, predictable	Sweep greedily. Learn staircases. Spend a map charge. Take risks now — they're cheap.
Midgame (30–70%)	Noticeably quicker	Ambushes matter now. Sweep floors he's not on; rotate when he follows. Keep stress under the heartbeat.
Endgame (70–100%)	+40–55%, hyperactive	One continuous, pre-planned route. Items nearest the exit go last. Never linger; never backtrack without cause.

13APPENDIX — THE NUMBERS

For the players who read the gears. All figures from the machine itself.

RULE	VALUE
Your speed vs his patrol / chase	0.055 vs 0.018 / 0.038 tiles·tick — you outpace even his sprint by ~45%
Chase trigger	≤ 9 tiles + clear line of sight + he's within ~39° of your view centre (screen half-width ≈ 33°)
Catch range / lucky escape	0.55 tiles / 4% warp-away chance
Chase memory / search time	4 s without sight ends the chase → ~5 s searching your last position
Floor change	every ~13 s (±7.5 s), 82% toward your floor; walks to real stairs, no teleporting
Ambush / stair camp	40% per waypoint, 9 s lurk  ·  30% after floor change, 6 s camp
Hunt mode	starts at stress ≥ 65, ends below 50; re-paths to you every 2.6 s at 1.15× patrol speed
Escalation at 100% collected	speed ×1.55 · floor-change wait ×0.45
Stress gains	proximity ≤ 7 tiles: up to +7/s · chase: +11/s · scares: +10–16 · stalker: +12
Stress relief	−1.6/s when calm · building entry baseline 18 · town carry-over cap 30
Stress thresholds	18 vignette · 45 shake · 55 heartbeat · 65 hunt
Scare cadence	one event every 22–46 s: lights (~35%), whisper (~35%), phantom figure (~30%)
Street stalker	appears every 9–19 s; vanishes inside 5.5 tiles, after 1.3 s of staring, or 9 s
Map overlay	3 charges per building, ~3 s each; unlimited in town; game keeps running
Pickup / interact range	1.1 tiles for items · 1.5 tiles for stairs, doors, exits