Yes. BURN-IN is a psychological horror game: it unsettles with dread, wrong details and things that move while you are not looking, rather than with fights. It deals with grief, guilt, a fatal car accident, the death of a child and a fire, none of it shown, and it has flickering light and sudden brightness. Flashes and motion can be reduced in the settings, and the content note appears before the game begins.

Is there combat in BURN-IN?

No. You look, hold your gaze, hide, cover mirrors and solve puzzles with light. The danger is in what the afterimage shows you, and in what it leaves behind.

About three hours for a first run, longer if you look into every light and follow the optional side stories. There are seven nights, three endings and a hidden one.

When does BURN-IN come out, and on what?

BURN-IN is in development and has no release date yet. All seven nights are playable in the current build. It is planned for Steam on Windows and Linux, with English and German text.

BURN-IN – pixel-art psychological horror game

Night street in Vessen in the rain: Noa stands by a phone box and a glowing streetlamp while the cyan WASCHSALON neon and the bright laundrette window reflect on the wet pavement.

In developmentChapter II · Psychological horror

Some pictures never switch off.

A pixel-art psychological horror game about grief, guilt and a glass eye that cannot forget. Seven nights in a rain-soaked harbour town, and no combat at all.

Wishlist on Steam Coming soon Follow development

Planned for SteamWindowsLinux

The game

Stare, blink, and see what stays

Night after night, at 3:14, someone leaves a tape at Noa’s door. It shows her flat, filmed from a corner where nobody stood, and the label is in her handwriting.

A year after the accident that killed her little brother, Noa Halden refills vending machines through the night in Vessen, a harbour town where the drizzle never stops. It is late 1998: tube TVs, a pager on her belt, neon on wet asphalt. When she stares into a light and blinks, her glass eye keeps the afterimage, and in its ink the people around her appear as their guilt has shaped them. But the afterimages no longer fade, and soon she must ask whether she is seeing the truth about others, or only about herself.

Genre: Psychological horror, no combat
Status: In development · all seven nights playable
Setting: Vessen, a harbour town, late 1998
Structure: Seven nights, three endings and a hidden one
Length: About three hours for a first run
Languages: English and German text, no voice-over
Platforms: Planned for Steam on Windows and Linux
Art: Pixel art at 384 × 216, lit in real time

The afterimage: half of the street turns into black-and-white ink hatching inside the glass eye’s iris, and dripping red letters on the laundrette wall read ‘YOU WERE HERE LAST NIGHT.’ — Plate IIStare, blink, and the ink shows what the street hides.

Features

What the glass eye keeps

The afterimage.Stare into a neon sign, a tube TV or a streetlamp, then blink. Noa’s glass eye holds an ink-drawn imprint where the truth shows: writing on the walls, doors that should not exist, people as the shapes of their guilt.
No combat.You look, hold your gaze, hide, cover mirrors and solve puzzles with light, and every afterimage leaves residue behind: the world slowly starts to lie, with no meter ever telling you how far it has gone.
Seven nights in Vessen.Each night is a self-contained chapter of one story, in pixel art with real-time lighting, and any night can be replayed on its own.
A VHS tape at the door.Most nights there is one: Noa’s own flat, filmed from a corner where nobody stood.
Three endings and a hidden one.Earned by how you play rather than by a final choice, with optional side stories for those who look into every light.
Sound made by the game.The score and every sound are synthesised live as you play. Every line is text, in English and German, and flashes and motion can be reduced.

Stills from Vessen

Work in progress · current build

Noa, seen from behind, stares up into the laundrette’s neon; the pink glare blooms, the street around her blurs, and a dark reflection waits in the glass among the washing machines. — Staring into the laundrette neon, just before the blink.

Noa’s flat seen through the afterimage: everything in ink hatching, a spiral on the TV screen, and dripping red writing above it asking ‘WHO WAS AT THE WHEEL?’ — Noa’s flat, held in ink: who was at the wheel?

Noa alone in a 24-hour laundrette at night, fluorescent tubes overhead and pink neon light spilling across the tiled floor and the empty chairs. — The 24-hour laundrette, Night 3.

A VHS tape plays on the TV: grainy footage of Noa’s own flat filmed from a high corner, with the PLAY marker and the timestamp NOV 12 1998 03:31:43. — A tape at the door: her own flat, filmed from a corner.

In a dark TV studio the afterimage reveals an inner shape: a giant cracked ink puppet holding strings that reach down to Noa standing in the spotlight. — In the TV studio, the ink shows a man as his guilt has shaped him.

Questions & answers

BURN-IN, asked and answered

What people ask about BURN-IN, answered from the game as it stands today.

Is BURN-IN scary?
Yes. BURN-IN is a psychological horror game: it unsettles with dread, wrong details and things that move while you are not looking, rather than with fights. It deals with grief, guilt, a fatal car accident, the death of a child and a fire, none of it shown, and it has flickering light and sudden brightness. Flashes and motion can be reduced in the settings, and the content note appears before the game begins.
Is there combat in BURN-IN?
No. You look, hold your gaze, hide, cover mirrors and solve puzzles with light. The danger is in what the afterimage shows you, and in what it leaves behind.
How long is BURN-IN?
About three hours for a first run, longer if you look into every light and follow the optional side stories. There are seven nights, three endings and a hidden one.
When does BURN-IN come out, and on what?
BURN-IN is in development and has no release date yet. All seven nights are playable in the current build. It is planned for Steam on Windows and Linux, with English and German text.

Wishlist · Follow

Wishlist, and keep watching

BURN-IN is in development. When its Steam page opens, the button below goes live. Until then, new stills and clips from Vessen appear first on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, and the Candlewane Discord is open.

Wishlist on Steam Coming soon