About This Demo

THE DEMO

This demo contains the first "chapter" of gameplay. It will introduce you to the story and give you a sense of what to expect in the full game. While the demo does contain the beginnings of the horror aspect of the game, the majority of the terror will be experienced only in the full release. This is a slow burn horror experience where dread and scares build up over time. But this demo should give you a small taste of what's to come!

SPECIAL DEVELOPER NOTE: This Demo may have a bug or two! No matter how many bugs I squash, another always seems to pop up. But I'll continue squashing for the full release! 

🕷️Discount Nightmares🕷️

Is an episodic series. Each episode is a self contained, unique, thrilling, horror, mystery!

🌵The Gulch🌵

Working in the gulch is a tough job. It's even tougher when you might get eaten in the middle of the night!

🎮 About This Game

The Gulch is a horror adventure with tones of comedy, built in the spirit of classic ’90s style puzzle games. Think of it as the successor to the Point and Click Game. You wake in a remote desert settlement with no memory of who you are. The boss insists your work here is vital—though he won’t explain why.

By day, you’ll complete your duties: mining, operating strange machinery, and navigating a maze of rusting shipping containers and abandoned caves. By night, the sirens warn you to stay inside… because something lurks out in the dark!

Through a unique five senses system, you’ll explore the Gulch in ways most games never attempt. Look, touch, listen, smell, and even taste your way through a landscape of puzzles, secrets, and growing dread. The further you dig into the routine, the more you’ll realize nothing at the Gulch is what it seems.

Key Features

• Five Senses Gameplay – Interact with the world by seeing, touching, smelling, tasting, and listening. Each sense can reveal different clues, puzzles, and surprises.

• Classic Adventure Puzzles – Collect items, combine them, and use them in unexpected ways across a richly interactive environment.

• Atmospheric Horror – A slow escalation from uneasy humor to full-on terror, where daily tasks become tinged with paranoia.

• Routine vs. Terror – Balance working the mines, maintaining machinery, and following “the rules” with surviving the horrors that lurk after dark.

• Exploration & Discovery – Traverse mines, cabins, shipping yards, and burned ruins while uncovering secrets hidden in every corner.

• Character Encounters – Form fragile bonds with the workers as you question their motives—and your own identity.

• Miss Fortune – Save your game at anytime at the fortune telling machine. It might cost you though.

• Consumables – Coins, med kits and more! Why not do a little shopping along the way. The gulch offers ample places to spend some coins, which you can find all over the large environment.

In The Gulch, the question isn’t just whether you’ll survive the night… but whether you really want to find the truth.

The Discount Nightmares series aims to move the Point & Click genre into the next generation. With all the same classic tropes of  Point & Click but now in a 3D, first person perspective. The classics vibes and pixilated art style still remain. Collect items to solve Rube Goldberg style puzzles. Talk to interesting characters. Solve the mystery!

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

AI helped me to craft marketing material, Pre-generated AI illustrations for in-game and steam store artwork and in game meshes.