Stuff others have recommended:
Nevermind (Surreal, psychological)
Phantasmal (Roguelike)
Stasis (Story rich)
Yume Nikki (Surreal, RPG Maker, free/non Steam)
Among the Sleep (Atmospheric)
Slender: The Arrival
Reveal the Deep (Underwater)
Silence of the Sleep (Psychological)
The Old City: Leviathan (Walking simulator)
Tormentum (Point and click, dark fantasy)
The Cat Lady (Point and click, story rich)
Fran Bow (Point and click, psychological)
Goosebumps (Lighthearted)
Dreadout (Looks kind of long, actually)
Monstrum (Procedural generation)
Serena (Free)
Doorways series (Atmospheric, survival?)
Dark Fall: Lost Souls (Point and click, atmospheric)
Lone Survivor (Survival, 4-5 hours)
Outlast (Atmospheric, survival)
Estranged Act I (Free HL2 mod, unfinished)
Spooky's House of Jump Scares (Free, comedic)
the static speaks my name (free, psychological)
Euclidean (Lovecraftian, 3-4 hours)
Knock-Knock (Surreal, 3-4 hours)
Neverending Nightmares (Psychological)
The Last Door (Point and click)
Claire (Sidescroller, 4 hours)
Condemned: Criminal Origins (Survival horror, 7 hours)
Deadlight (Zombies, 6 hours)
Home (<1 hour, choose your own adventure)
Joe's Diner (Diner simulation, 3 hours)
Fingerbones (Free, 10-15 minutes)
The Moon Sliver (Psychological, 1.5 hours)
Puzzle Agent (Twin Peaks-esque, 4.5 hours)
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter (Atmospheric, mystery)
Distraint (Psychological)
Paranormal (Haunted house, random elements)
Disillusions Manga Horror (Manga inspired, comedic)
Sanitarium (Point and click, psychological)
Downfall (Point and click, psychological)
Darkness Within 1+2 (Point and click, Lovecraftian)
John Saul's Blackstone Chronicles: An Adventure in Terror (Non-Steam, might not run on newer systems)
The Charnel House Trilogy (Psychological, story rich)
Scratches (Removed from Steam)
Mad Father, The Witch's House, Ib and Misao (Freeware/non-Steam)
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I've seen this before and it looks interesting, but $20 is outside of my impulse buy range. I'll keep an eye on it, though.
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Even tho i think you may be missing out on some longer ones i am a pretty fun of horror games myself i think i can help you http://store.steampowered.com/app/250620/?l=greek this one you may get to be a baby and guess it might not be good but it will surprise you and its about 3-5 hour long and my second recommendation http://store.steampowered.com/app/252330/ slender the arrival its not just jump scares this one it messes with your head and it wont last long
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I think I'm a little burned out on Slenderman, but Among the Sleep looks interesting. I'll probably at least look at the demo.
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I'm not a horror fan, but saw Reveal The Deep recently and it might fit what you are looking for.
Personally I liked Silence of the Sleep. Can't really think right now of anything else which I would tag as both short and horror.
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Reveal the Deep caught my eye but it didn't register as a horror game to me. Skimming the store page I'm not sure if it really is one or just a kind of spooky underwater exploration game. But for $1 I can probably take a chance on it.
I picked up Silence of the Sleep from Tremor, thanks! I'll give it a shot soon.
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Thnking some more: The Old City: Leviathan is a walking simulator, but it might fit your criteria. Also, if you like P&Cs with horror settings (though i wouldn't qualify them as "scary") there is Cat Lady, Fran Bow, Tormentum. You might also like The Vanishing of Ethan Carter, though again, not sure it really qualifies as horror.
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The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is not horror, it is mystery. Creepy in some ways, but certainly not horror. However, I still recommend the shit out of it.
Layers of Fear - Overwhelmingly Positive (97%/3%)
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The Vanishing of Ethan Carter isn't solely a mystery game, it has psychological horror elements in it as well. How do you personally define horror? Blood, guts, monsters, scary s**t? What does it need in order to be classified as horror? The goal/purpose of a horror game is to frighten, shock and/or disgust the player. I'd say that The Vanishing of Ethan Carter accomplishes that. I, as well as others, would label it as mystery/psychological horror. You may not agree, and that's fine, but in my opinion, saying that it's "certainly not horror" is inaccurate.
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If you like Silence of the Sleep I recommend that guy's other game Distraint.
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I'm not sure how interested I am in procedurally generated horror; it seems like they're mostly about running from/fighting monsters instead of building any kind of story or atmosphere. I might give it a look if it goes on sale, though.
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Your avatar reminded me of another game I played recently, so that counts.
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I'd recommend you to take a look at Dark Fall: Lost Souls. It's an atmospheric horror point-n-click adventure and if I recall correctly, it's not very long.
Has mixed reviews on Steam, but personally I enjoyed every minute of the game. The game is often on a great discount, so wait if you decide to grab it ;)
You can try the other two Dark Fall games as well, but I haven't played them so I can't tell if they are good or not.
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Lone Survivor is a very good horror game imho.
You should be able to finish it in 4-5 hours :)
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Estranged: Act I, a free HL2 mod, it's not really scary (the second part focuses mostly on gunfights) and the story isn't complete but it's a quite interesting game.
Spooky's House of Jump Scares, a free game, the title says everything about it.
the static speaks my name, another free game. It's a really weird experience but I personally enjoyed it.
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Silent hill 2 can be beaten in 2 hrs, if you know what you are doing, it might take longer for a first timer, also its one of the best games ever made, so thats a plus.
Digitally? its not available anywhere.... so its either get a used ebay copy and they go for around 90$ or..... ask jack sparrow :v
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Silent Hill 2 is a good example of what I'm not looking for; a great horror game that kind of overstays its welcome. It's long enough that you can get totally used to the mechanics and pretty much figure out the story long before the end, which took me out of the experience when I played it ages ago. I did enjoy it, though.
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Knock Knock has been on my wishlist forever. I love Ice Pick Lodge, even though I've never finished any of their games.
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Ice Pick Lodge are absolutely fantastic. They really dare to make truly different and original games. I'm a big fan, looking forward to the Pathologic remake, and I can only hope for them to go back to The Void world some day in the future.
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Looks interesting, and it's also dirt cheap on Tremor. I picked it up, thanks.
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Times given are my personal clear times. Your mileage may vary.
Claire (4 hours) - Silent Hill-ish sidescroller full of nasty monsters, creepy environments, and psychological dread. Great story with a lot of replayability thanks to multiple endings.
Condemned: Criminal Origins (7 hours) - First-person survival horror with enraged attackers, occasional jumpscares, and a lot of creepy atmosphere. Guns are scarce, with most combat being done with improvised weapons taken from the environment. Includes investigation sections.
Deadlight (6 hours) - Gonna be honest and say I didn't personally care for this one much, but it was at least good enough that I finished it. You might check it out anyway since I'm apparently in the minority. Zombie survival horror platformer with puzzle sections.
Home (<1 hour) - Less a game and more an interactive story/choose your own adventure/exploration thing. Psychological horror in pixelated platformer format. Single clear time is less than an hour, but I have 4 hours runtime on my account due to going through multiple times to follow all the paths and get all the endings and achievements. Surprisingly really good.
Joe's Diner (3 hours) - Where Home is kind of stretching the definition of "game", Joe's Diner stretches the definition of "horror". Despite having a spooky premise (working at a diner built on an ancient Indian burial ground, caught between two rival ghosts), it's not really scary at all. Still, it's a pretty good Diner Dash style game that can have its startling moments.
Fingerbones (10-15 minutes) - Free psychological horror with some minor puzzle solving. Can't really say anything about it as it would all be spoilers, just that it's very well written with some "sick to your stomach" twists.
The Moon Sliver (1.5 hours) - Another psychological horror with some minor puzzle solving by the same guy who made Fingerbones. Again very well written, also nicely atmospheric. I'm quite impressed with this David Szymanski fellah, and I personally look very forward to trying his newest game, The Music Machine.
Outlast (5.5 hours) - I haven't played the Whistleblower DLC yet, so the time I've listed is only for the base game. Really need to get into that DLC tho', because the base game is absolutely amazing. First person stealth-based survival horror with an amazing setting and story. Has jumpscares but is far more reliant on the environment itself to keep the player constantly tense and terrified.
Puzzle Agent (4.5 hours) - Though it does come with the tagline "A Dark and Twisted Puzzler", I was surprised at just how creepy parts of this game actually were. The art-style certainly doesn't look like it would be conducive to such, and the gameplay is entirely puzzle-based (with some very mild point-and-click adventure elements), but the story - while often comedic in tone - has a very Twin Peaks style weirdness to it.
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Thanks! I'm not sure if most of these are to my taste, but this was a great response. Moon Sliver is on my "to play" list but I'll probably end up giving Fingerbones a look first.
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No problem. :) I'm a huge horror game fan myself, so I've got a lot of 'em in my finished pile and a whole lot more waiting to be played.
I actually played The Moon Sliver first and then Fingerbones after myself, though only because I didn't know the latter existed until I finished the former and started looking up stuff about it. I will say that even if Fingerbones ends up not being to your liking, give TMS a chance anyway. Though similar in atmosphere and progression, the story and tone are quite different.
Of the ones on my list, I would particularly recommend Claire, Home, The Moon Sliver, and Outlast. They're the creepiest and/or scariest of the bunch and the most well made while still being fairly short. I'd also include Condemned with those, but it may actually run a bit too long.
I'll second the recommendations folks have made for Knock-Knock, Serena, and Spooky's House of Jumpscares. I'll also mention Paranormal here, which is really damn good. Only reason I didn't put it in my list above is because I haven't actually beaten it yet, so I don't know exactly how long it is. It's also been in perpetual early access forever now, but I wouldn't have really been able to tell just judging by what I've played of it. Remarkably polished and scary as hell.
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I gave Fingerbones a shot and while I wasn't blown away by it, it was a good enough 15 minutes that I'm excited to get around to The Moon Sliver.
Paranormal was on Tremorgames, so I picked that up along with Home. I know I mentioned earlier that procedurally/randomly generated games probably wouldn't appeal to me, but from what I skimmed Paranormal randomly generates the story instead of just re-positioning the monsters, which is intriguing.
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FB was certainly good for a first go, but I feel that TMS was much better. Hopefully it doesn't disappoint!
Except for the layout of the house, yeah, it seems like Paranormal pretty much randomly generates everything else. I only got a taste of it myself as I only tried playing through it twice. The first time I got eaten up pretty quick, and the second time I quit out of my own accord. Seriously creepy game.
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It has mixed reviews and most of the positive reviews are people who hated the game trying to be funny...but if you're recommending it, I'll consider it.
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Lately I've been on a horror game kick, but I find that in general, I tend to get bored with longer ones. I like them to end right before I can start getting comfortable with the way the game works. It doesn't hurt that these games are usually pretty cheap, as well. Does anyone have any recommendations for "fun sized" horror games? (Get it? Like the little candy bars you get on Halloween? No? Me either.) I'm not really interested in zombies, jump scares or gore (I'm fine with gore, but if the game is only scary because there are 50 spleens on screen at a time, I'll pass.) but if you can make a really compelling case I might check out a game that prominently features them.
Here's what I've beaten lately, and ultimately I'd recommend giving each of them a look:
They Breathe 20-30 minute atmospheric, underwater horror. I'd avoid the reviews and forum for this one, since they contain major spoilers.
Stray Cat Crossing 2-3 hour combat-free RPG Maker game. Surreal horror with a bizarre cast of characters. Kind of loses steam after the first act and doesn't really fulfill its potential, but worth the price of admission. Has a demo.
Pony Island 3-4 hour fourth wall breaking "glitchpunk" horror with plenty of secrets to hunt for. Kind of rides on the coat tails of Undertale and Binding of Isaac's arg elements without really building a worthwhile in-game world or mystery of its own, but it's a fun experience. The soundtrack bundle is worth it.
Eversion 2-3 hours, maybe? A cute platformer with a clever puzzle solving gimmick. You can probably guess what this one is about from the store page, but it still creates an interesting atmosphere and packs some surprises. There's a free version here but the Steam version is more polished and has some extra features.
Fingerbones 15-20 minutes. Free to play. A very simple "collect scattered notes" game, but it does a lot with a little.
If you're having trouble justifying spending money on such short games, They Breathe and Stray Cat Crossing are 99 coins on Tremorgames right now. (Which, if you're not familiar with the site, you can earn in like ten minutes.) Also, here's a giveaway for They Breathe, to thank you for reading all of this. (over)
Edit: And, why not, one for Stray Cat Crossing.
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