Halloween may have come and gone, but horror games are forever, or at least still being released. Stifled is a first-person horror game where the player must use sound to navigate treacherous environments. TechRaptor got to play the indie game Stifled at E3 and announced it when it hit Greenlight in July. It has since been approved for Steam, and announced that it will be fully released on December 13th. Stifled will not only be released on Steam, but on GOG, the Humble Store, and on itch.io, and will offer support for Oculus. In addition, the developers have released a demo so you can experience it for yourself before the game is officially released.

https://youtu.be/2Vhrt9zIAE0

Stifled originally began as a conceptual student title called Lurking. The concept was the same - players used their voice, the environment, and whatever objects they can find to create noises. This created an echo-location effect which allowed the players to maneuver through dark environments. Lurking found a lot of success despite being a tiny student project, including being picked up by well known Let's Players. Following the success of the project, the developers moved forward to make Stifled, a fully realized game based on their original idea. The developers recommend using a headset so you can make the sounds yourself (which would make for a more intense experience) but included options to make sounds using an input key. Enemies can make sounds as well, which is nice since it lets you know they're looking for you.

You can watch some of our gameplay here to get a look at how the mechanics work, or you can go download the demo right now from their Steam Store page and try it out for yourself. Stifled will be available starting December 13, 2016.

Disclaimer: This gameplay footage was collected using a demo copy provided by the developer.

https://youtu.be/89-vL3Cb2AM