Xylophobia

The scent of pine surrounds you. Hitchhiking seed pods have curled their gnarled hooks into the fabric of your clothes. Small nicks and scrapes from thorny bushes cover your hands.

As your vision wavers back into clarity and adjusts to the low light of the setting sun, you pause. A bird calls to your left. Rustling leaves draw your attention to your right. Spinning around in a full circle reveals nothing but trees as far as you can see. You don’t know how you got here or where “here” even is. All you know is that you are deep in the woods and it’s getting dark.

Your sole focus is to escape the woods, preferably before it becomes too dark to see. Use the tools at your disposal to find your way back to civilization. But be wary of your steps because you don’t know if it is one in the wrong direction or toward something more sinister.

Xylophobia is a solo-journaling horror experience. The game features six original drawings and six original pieces of micro-fiction. But only you can tell the full story of what happens as you clamber through the darkening forest.
Similar to games like Dread, Xylophobia recommends using a jumbling tower to simulate your mental state. Additionally, you will need a deck of cards (with or without the Jokers, depending on how lucky you’re feeling), a 6-sided die, tokens, and a journaling device such as pen and paper or a recorder.

This is a horror game and includes themes of fear, isolation, suspense, despair, violence, dread, death, and graphic content. Please be aware that this is a game that asks you to use your imagination to help conjure unsettling images as you progress.

Please read and play with caution, keeping in mind that you can take a break or stop completely at any time.

This work is based on The Wretched (found at http://loottheroom.itch.io/wretched), product of Chris Bissette and Loot The Room, and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).