In Midnight Special you awaken on a stormy night in 1987 in Maine, inside a twisting manor haunted by dread. What should have been a routine babysitting job spirals into nightmare as power fails and reality shifts around you. You must navigate dark corridors, strange phone calls, and shifting threats to uncover what’s happening and escape before night devours you.
Midnight Special is a point and click survival horror game developed by Scared Stupid Inc and published by Yahaha Games. It was released on May 8, 2025. The game is styled in 16-bit pixel art and channels the retro horror of the 80s and early 90s. You play as Sarah, a babysitter watching over two children in a large manor. When sinister events begin, your goal is to solve puzzles, manage your limited options, and survive the night.
Gameplay
Gameplay revolves around exploration, puzzle solving, and survival under pressure. You click through rooms, interact with objects, and piece together clues. Resources and opportunities to act are limited, making each choice carry weight. Enemies and disturbances require observation and timing, not just aggression. The game encourages careful movement, paying attention to environmental hints, and sometimes retreating or hiding rather than confronting danger directly.
Visuals and Style
Midnight Special embraces a retro aesthetic with 16-bit pixel art, muted color palettes, and hand crafted visuals. Lighting and shadow play a major role in building tension. The manor feels both familiar and uncanny, with flickering lights, dark hallways, and static moments that feel alive. Sound design accentuates the atmosphere thunder, creaking floorboards, distant whispers, and abrupt silences enhance the creeping dread.
Importance in Survival Horror History
This game is a strong example of how indie developers can revive and reinterpret classic horror mechanics. By borrowing from the point-click and exploration traditions of older horror games with a notorious inspirations fropm the original Clock Tower, it demonstrates that narrative tension and atmosphere can still carry a horror experience. Midnight Special also shows how stylistic constraints like pixel art or limited resources can become strengths in creating mood rather than obstacles.
Reception and Historical Value
Player response has been very positive. Many praise its atmospheric visuals, clever puzzles, and how tightly it evokes retro horror. Some criticisms mention its short runtime or occasional ambiguity in puzzle logic. Because it’s clearly designed as a love letter to older horror games, it’s likely to be remembered as a standout indie that struck a balance between nostalgia and fresh tension.
Availability and Collectibility
Midnight Special is available digitally on PC (Steam).
Get it on:
Steam: Midnight Special on Steam
Trailer: