There's a reason that the story of the person letting the dog lick their fingers and the body of the young lover scraping the car continue to circulate around campfires, the internet, and slumber parties for generations. Everyone likes a good urban legend, and that’s really where creepypastas come from.
These stories that circulate around the internet have taken on a life of their own, and they’ve started to inspire stories in a whole different medium: video games. Play the scariest, weir𝕴dest, and creepiest games based on creepypastas. You will see terrifying Easter eggs, wander through dark spaces, and perhaps uncover more than one cadaver. When creepypastas and gaming mix, anything is possible.
9 The ꦺMidnight Game
Created by Unicorn Studios, the Midnight Game is based on a creepypasta about an ancient Pagan ritual. The ritual was used to summon t𒁃he Midnight Man into the home of someone who broke the laws of paganism. The person has until 3:33am to evade the Midnight Man. The ritual is complete when the person succeeds... or, the Mid💛night Man does.
In the game, ౠyou are performing🃏 the ritual, and you will bring the Midnight Man into your own home. You must escape and evade him until the time runs out. The game has a super creepy look, and you work from a handwritten notepad that gives the game an element of reality that is definitely scary.
8 Polybius
Polybius is even older than creepypastas, as it was originally an urban legend that pre-dates the internet. According to the story, Polybius was an '80s-era arcade game that could cause a variety of symptoms, including memory loss. Government agents, possibly Men in Black depending on which version of the legend you hear, monitor the game and people playing it.
Of course, this game did not exist in the 1980s or for many years after. Like many good ghost stories, this one was pure fiction...but not for ever. Polybius was finally released by a programmer who turned the story into a cohesive narrative in 2017 and it's just as scary as you think.
7 ♐ Pony Island
Pony Island is based on a story about being trapped inside a game. According to the backstory, this game was created by Lucifer himself. And since he is all about deception, it all starts out looking innocent enough. Pony Island is full of pretty pastels and everything you'd expect from a game with this title. But then, it gets dark.
You are trapped in the game, a purgatory of sorts, and you must escape the clutches of the devil to get out. Before you've made it to the end, you're going to be looking at ponies in a suspicious way.
6 Five Nights at Freddy's
It's always creepy to be in any place of business after hours. The low lighting, the quiet, that eerie sense that you aren't alone. This all comes to life in this game, which is based on a story about a security guard in a pizza parlor after closing time.
To add to the creep factor, you actually aren't alone. There are two animatronic robots here and at night, they get kind of weird. You'll get the full security guard experience in this game. You'll watch security cameras and keep things safe... from whatever might be lurking in the dark.
5 Pale Luna
This text-based adventure game is more difficult than it first appears. Actually finishing the game is incredibly difficult due to multiple crashes and other weird stuff, which is all part of the game itself. You will get a few little creep outs along the way, but the real scary stuff doesn't happen until the end...if you make it that far.
The creepypasta story of the game is that it circulated around the San Francisco Bay area and has since disappeared into obscurity. Of course, it's more likely that the game never existed. Luckily, there are several versions of it now. Many programmers have taken it upon themselves to recreate the game based on the story of the game. You can find several versions online.
4 🅠 The ꦇTheater
The original version of the Theater was a PC game, which you can actually still find on CD-ROMs. The game is best known for its super creepy character, the Ticket-Taker. He is super weird and this game is famo🍸us for its creep factor be🃏cause of him.
It's a simple enough game but the overall weirdness of it is hard to look away from. You will literally be in a theater that is awash in red and you will be creeped out from the word go. The Theater is now available to play online and you can download the game as an app on mobile devices.
3 Control
Control puts you into a secret, shadowy government agency that focuses on supernatural activity. There is something here, and you need to put a stop to it. The game will take you into dark and terr✨ifying environments while you wander through the mysterious facility where unknown horrors lurk.
The game is based on a creepypasta about a similar government agency and a conspiracy theory about what they're hiding, plot points that directly informed Control. The game itself is highly stunning and it's won many awards for gameplay and design. Find it on Steam and see what happens when you're in Control.
2 Slender:🔜 The Eight ꦑPages
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You wake up in a dark forest with nothing but a flashlight that has one battery in it. You can jog for 𒉰short periods before you run out of breath. Good luck.
This game is positively thrilling. You will feel a ton of anxiety as you wander through the dark woods. The game map is large enough to do a lot of wandering, so try to keep track of where you are and remember to conserve your flashlight's battery.
Hopefully, you can avoid the Slender Man, the antagonist and a character straight from a popular creepypasta and urban legend. If he can see you, he's going to try to get you.
1 Luna Game
There are actually nine games in the Luna series, and it's hard to say which one is the creepiest. The game is simple, with a nice score...and then, things take a turn. You will start to get creeped out right away and from there, you're just along for the ride as you try to make your way through the various levels of the game.
All kinds of things will happen as you play this game, including the fact that you can't close the game. You might even be convinced you have a computer virus at some point. There aren't a lot of games that will get into your head quite like this one, which definitely makes it creepy. You can find this game online when you're ready for a weird adventure with a skewed sort of My Little Pony theme.