10 Indie Horror Games That Changed Everything

Kicking off a slew of what would eventually be described as "anomaly games", I'm On Observation Duty and its many sequels took the simple yet brilliant premise of "Spot The Difference" and gave it an air of suspense and horror, casting the player as someone assigned to watch and flip through security cameras to look for "anomalies" or changes in the rooms you're observing.

The anomalies can be as simple as switched furniture or as terrifying as an inhuman intruder, and while most of the game can be played either in a state of constant anxiety or relaxed puzzle-solving, some of the anomalies really come at you hard and fast, forcing you to resolve them on a timer before it's too late.

Because of the simplicity and relatively more doable development of its gameplay, many "anomaly games" have come out similar to Observation Duty or building on its core mechanic.

Notable examples including Exit 8 and Shinkansen 0, which built upon the simple mechanic with some more immersive walk-through elements.

Impressively, these groundbreaking games appear to have been developed by a single person - Notovia, who truly changed the indie horror landscape with these games.