Slender Man actually benefits from that aforementioned cinematic rule of keeping the villain hidden - at least, he does in his first video game appearance. The character himself is actually a piece of fake folklore developed on the SomethingAwful comedy forums, where users challenged each other to come up with a spooky story similar to the sorts you get in different cultures around the world. By far the greatest success of this exercise was Slender Man, originally simply a creepy, faceless figure Photoshopped into the background of otherwise banal photos, his presence imbuing them with a whole lot of sinister vibes. Slender: The Right Pages was a free title released for the PC, designed by one dude, and without any real objectives or win state. Sure, you get instructed at the start to collect a bunch of pieces of paper, but having them doesn't really protect you from that ghostly figure in the woods who will randomly appear behind you and eat your soul, bumping you back to the start after a static-filled GAME OVER screen.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
