Welcome

To celebrate the launch of Horror Game Kit 1.5, we’re bringing you a new type of challenge! We’re providing detailed theme settings to help you enhance your game development skills by incorporating popular elements in horror game design. 

Plus, you'll learn to promote your game by completing a video creation task.

Theme

                                                                                                 Schools in the Backrooms

Background

Have you heard of The Backrooms? A backroom is a place outside of reality and if you are not careful you will be slipped into it, where it's nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in. [4chan, 2019]

Imagine a scenario where a student, who returns to school late at night to retrieve a forgotten assignment, quickly realizes that something is terribly wrong. As they navigate through the seemingly endless corridors, the familiar school building twists into nightmares.

So never go to SCHOOLS in the Backrooms……In this game jam, your challenge is to create a horror game centered around a school trapped within the backrooms—a place where reality bends and escape seems impossible. The player must explore the dark, twisting hallways, solve puzzles to find a way out, and survive the terrors lurking in the shadows. Each step forward may bring them closer to escape—or drag them further into the endless maze.

Key Elements to Include:

• Unnerving Environment: The school transforms into a nightmarish maze with endless hallways, shifting rooms, and oppressive silence, all contributing to a growing sense of dread.
  
• Story Background: Please create your own storyline that fits the theme.

• Survival Horror: The school is not empty; unseen forces stalk the player through the backrooms, forcing them to stay vigilant and outmaneuver whatever lurks in the dark.
  

Hints:

1. Research the concept of "the backrooms" to craft an environment that is both familiar and deeply unsettling.
   
2. Research Backroom Level 898 to have some ideas.
   
3. Use atmospheric elements like lighting and sound to create a sense of isolation and fear as the player moves through the school.
   
4. Design puzzles and challenges that progressively reveal the nature of the school’s transformation and the dark forces at play.
   

Special Task

1. We have prepared a tutorial on how to replace Hiding Place , and now we invite you to try replacing it in your own game!

2. Take a screenshot or record a video of the Hiding Place in your game and put it on your game itch submission page.

3. We will give you additonal 10 points to your game if you do 1&2!

4. Looking forward to seeing your puzzle!

Awards

1st place * 1 - 100USD$

2nd place * 1 - 70USD$

3rd place * 1 - 50USD$

Participation Prize *n - 30USD$

Horror Game Kit 1.5

Horror Game Kit 1.5 is a comprehensive template that empowers you to craft spine-tingling horror games with minimal to no code. The newest version 1.5 brings exciting updates, including a new package system, enhanced prefabs, and upgraded smart assets. This all-in-one solution includes a robust template packed with essential features, a curated selection of assets and tools, pre-built systems to streamline development, and a demo game to spark inspiration. Plus, with the new SDK framework as the foundation, you'll soon be able to take the fear to the next level with multiplayer horror games.

To see the difference between HGK 1.0 and HGK 1.5 →Horror Game Kit Overview

How to Join

Official Jam

1. Sign up for the challenge by joining the jam on this page.

2. Submit your game project on this itch.io page.

3. Record the most exciting part of your game (less than one minute) or capture some exciting moments during your development process and upload it to YouTube as a short video. Make sure to mention us by @yahahastudios to submit the video, and use the hashtags #Schools in the Backrooms and #horrorgaming.  (Please make it public, or we cannot receive your video).

Rules

To be a valid submission, please follow these requirements:

1. Create and publish an original project. (AI tools, including the YAHAHA AI scene generator and 3D model generation, are allowed and not prohibited at any stage of the creation process.)

2.  Your submitted games should be made with the Horror Game Kit within YAHAHA Studio.

3. Get a score over 60 and submit all the required materials (project + video) to qualify for the participation prize.

4. When editing the itch page, enter "yahaha" in the tag field. 

5.  Send the co-author to HorrorHatch (https://horror-hatch.itch.io/)  before uploading.

Rating Rules