Warning: This game contains flashing images. If you are sensitive to flashing lights, please proceed with caution.

A Bad Christmas Story

A short horror interactive fiction set in the same universe as Bad Summer, A Bad Christmas Story is a standalone experience you can finish in a single sitting. Welcome to New Empress City, where another corpse is just another headline in a city that has grown numb to death and stretched police.

Play as Detective Oliver Smith. As New Empress’s youngest detective, Oliver is intelligent, stubborn, and all too used to spending holidays staring at corpses. Your choices and investigations drive his motivation, shaping how deeply he pursues the truth and what price he pays to uncover it.

Experience a cinematic, storybook horror told through dark, storybook imagery and film-inspired angles. Slow pans and stylized, hand-drawn animations transform each moment into a moody, moving picture that lingers long after the credits roll.

Choices that matter aren’t just flavor — information gathered early in the night unlocks smarter questions, sharper decisions, and safer outcomes later on. Miss key details and you’ll be left guessing when it matters most. A Bad Christmas Story is designed to be completed in one evening, with meaningful decisions worth revisiting to see how else the night could unfold.

Fully voiced characters bring the gritty streets of New Empress to life. With more than 10 talented voice actors, every character has a distinct voice, adding texture and atmosphere to the police corridors, dim alleys, and chilling quiet of the city at night.

In this compact, intense narrative, you’ll explore a city where death is routine, yet every case carries a personal cost. The night compels you to choose — and those choices echo through the case, Oliver’s resolve, and the fate of those around him.