10 Indie Horror Games That Changed Everything
3. Slender: The Eight Pages (Parsec Productions)
It cannot be overstated how influential Slender was on popular culture.
Despite how simple, janky, hard to control, and largely one-note it is as a game, with crude graphics and a small map, it was a surprising smash hit. On a meta level, it showed how internet urban legends could spawn multiple iterations across media, and on a gameplay level - well, it just worked. The single creator under Parsec Productions created something that resonated to millions of players, and for good reason.
Its simplicity in both story and mechanics—attempting to gather 8 pages of children's drawings while Slenderman stalks you in the woods—lends well to the horror, enhancing the already viral success of online urban legend Slenderman, and inviting many copycats. Its hard to control gameplay, lack of resources, and difficulty level made it feel like a true achievement when you actually won.
Slenderman's appearance, unmoving yet always stalking, as well as his death animation and sound design, were genuinely terrifying. However, even as influential as this was, this game took direct inspiration from the number one entry on this list, which we'll get to shortly.