Pretend it’s not There

Game information

Pretend it’s not There thrusts players into the shoes of a young student who experiences the creeping dread of being followed home from school. As you step through your front door, the tension escalates with the terrifying realization that the entity has followed you home and has also entered your house. The game begins at this critical juncture, setting a tone of denial where you must go about your evening routine as if nothing is amiss. This psychological horror game challenges you to maintain normalcy while a malevolent presence lurks in the shadows of your own home.

Balancing Routine with Survival

As the night unfolds, your task is to complete ordinary activities—eating dinner, doing homework, getting ready for bed—all while consciously ignoring the unsettling presence that you feel moving silently through your home. The gameplay mechanics are straightforward yet fraught with tension. Using W/A/S/D to move around your house, you interact with objects using the left mouse click to grab, throw, or engage, while the right click allows you to drop items. This simplicity in controls adds to the stark atmosphere, focusing player attention on the eerie environment and the unsettling task of pretending that everything is normal.

Gripping Gameplay Experience

Pretend it’s not There offers a compact but intense gameplay experience, with sessions lasting between 10 to 20 minutes. This brevity intensifies the urgency and horror, as players must quickly adapt to the escalating fear without breaking their routine or acknowledging the terror that shares their space. The game cleverly uses this mechanic to explore themes of denial and the human psyche’s capacity to ignore what we fear the most, providing a chilling reflection on how we handle the presence of the unknown and the unseen in our daily lives.