Midnight Run
Fill your bucket with 30 sweets. Then the castle opens: take its four relics and get home before the clock strikes twelve.
Trick or treat, back to front
Knock
Walk the dark village with your lantern and knock on the doors.
Treat…
An XRDoge husky answers and drops a sweet in your bucket.
…or trick
Some doors let something out. Run, hide in the dark, or turn it into a frog with the witch's wand.
Home by midnight
When the church bell tolls twelve, the Grim Reaper comes looking for you.
On a phone
Turn it sideways. Headphones make it much scarier.
On PC
W A S D to walk, the mouse to look round.
The game shows this screen the first time you play, and again from How to play in the pause menu. Tap a picture to see it full size.
Four ways to play
Treasure Hunt
Six golden treats are hidden round the village: behind graves, in gardens and in the darkest corners. Find them all.
Endless
Collect as many sweets as you can. Three lives, and the night only gets worse. How long can you last?
Vampire Hunt
Draw water from the old well, have the vicar bless it, dig up the golden cross in the churchyard. Then face the vampire in his castle.
What's out there tonight
At the doors
- An XRDoge husky answers in a witch hat, devil horns, a pumpkin hat or cat ears, and drops a treat in your bucket: wrapped sweets, a lollipop for a sugar rush, a chocolate bar for power, or a rare toffee apple for an extra life.
- Or it's a trick, and what comes out goes after whoever is nearest.
- Eat three sweets for power and your breath back. At home, ten sweets buy a life.
- A black cat across your path means bad luck at the next door.
The churchyard
- Search a gravestone for sweets, or something claws its way out: a zombie or a skeleton. Some grab your ankles and sink back; others climb all the way out and come after you.
- Chest tombs grind open on a pile of sweets, or a ghost.
- Open graves hide among the headstones. Fall in and it hurts; jump to climb out. Lead a chasing skeleton into one and it's gone for good.
- Ghostly women watch from the church pews. And don't open the crypt.
The monsters
- Zombies grab you and hang on, Frankenstein's monster slams the ground, the werewolf pounces, and the Tall Man vanishes and reappears right behind you.
- Skeletons, mummies, the wendigo, the mothman, the witch, a banshee at the old house, ghosts and a poltergeist.
- At midnight, the Grim Reaper comes for you.
Hide in the dark
- Your lantern burns oil, about four minutes a tank. Brass oil cans top it up.
- Crouch into a hedge, a shed, under a pew or behind a tomb, and put your lantern out: a lit lantern gives you away.
- Monsters hear you. Running and jumping carry; creeping doesn't. Lose one and it comes looking, checking the hiding places one by one.
- Duck behind a house or a big tree to get out of sight, and look behind you now and then.
Magic
- Take the witch's wand from her cottage in the woods, and the nearest monster turns into a frog and hops away. Three spells to start, and more in the garden sheds.
- Find a toadstool, a raven's feather and an eye of newt for her cauldron: the brew might turn you invisible, give you full power or fill your bucket.
- A candle keeps the ghosts back, and a broomstick lets you run like the wind.
Gardens, boards and settings
- Every house has a back garden with a shed. Open one: bats or rats, then a monster, a spell or lamp oil. Bicycles lean on the back walls: jump them, or go round.
- A Top 10 for every game, all-time and this week. Add your name after a round.
- Captions for the sounds if you want them, and a smaller download on phones.
The village is waiting
A church and its churchyard, a haunted house, a witch's cottage hidden in the woods, a castle across the moat, and a storm rolling in. Something howls past the lane.
What's new
· A fourth way to play, places to hide, and a Top 10 for every game.
New ways to play
- Vampire Hunt: holy water from the old well, the vicar's blessing, the golden cross from the churchyard, then the vampire in his castle. Hold the cross up to drive him back, throw the holy water, and watch him turn into one great bat.
- A Top 10 for every game, all-time and this week. Add your name after a round: a made-up name, or your first name with numbers.
Hide and seek
- Crouch into a hedge, a shed, under a pew or behind a tomb. Lose a monster and it comes looking, checking the hiding places one by one.
- Keep still and put your lantern out: a lit lantern gives you away.
- Monsters hear you now. Running and jumping carry; creeping doesn't.
The village
- Search a gravestone and something may claw its way out of its grave: some grab your ankles and sink back, others crawl all the way out and come after you.
- The open graves are hidden among the headstones. Lead a chasing skeleton into one and it's out of the game.
- The door huskies answer in witch hats, devil horns, pumpkin hats and cat ears.
- New barrels, buckets and pumpkins, a new frog that hops low and quick, and crows that sit on the gravestones until you come close.
Sounds and settings
- Footsteps in the grass, crows, a hissing cat, panting when you run out of breath, the coffin's shriek, the church organ and a scream from the old house.
- Captions for the sounds, if you want them (off to start with), and markers on the map.
- A much smaller download on phones.
· The witch's cottage opens its door, and the churchyard gets deadlier.
The witch's wand
- Her cottage in the woods has a door now. Go inside and take the wand from her table.
- Press Q (or tap Wand) and the nearest monster turns into a frog and hops away. Ghosts and the poltergeist freeze instead.
- Three spells to start, and sometimes more in the shed at the bottom of your garden. A counter shows how many are left.
The graveyard
- A lantern burns at every grave until you've searched it.
- A gravestone gives you sweets, or a skeleton, and the stone topples over.
- Chest tombs grind open: a pile of sweets, or a ghost.
- Three graves lie open. Fall in and it hurts; jump to climb out.
The monsters
- They find their way round walls and houses instead of getting stuck behind them.
- Lose them, and they may go after the husky on his doorstep or the villager running from the ghost instead.
Back gardens
- Every house on the street has a back garden with a shed. Open one: bats or rats, then a monster, a spell or lamp oil.
- Bicycles lean against the back walls. Jump over them, or go round.
· The village has woken up a little more. Here's what's changed. The trailer has been re-filmed to show it, and there's a new one-minute flight over the village.
The monsters fight dirty
- Zombies grab you and hang on. Struggle free by pressing keys or tapping.
- Frankenstein's monster slams the ground and throws you back.
- The Grim Reaper's scythe reaches three metres, and steals five minutes off the clock.
- The werewolf pounces from six to eight metres away.
- The Tall Man vanishes… and reappears right behind you.
- The vampire only comes for you as a bat.
- Zombies, mummies and Frankenstein's monster no longer give up at the end of the street. They'll follow you all the way home.
- They're solid now, too: no slipping through them.
The village
- The church has a congregation: ghostly women in veils, sitting in the pews. They turn to watch you walk up the aisle.
- Braziers burn in the castle yard, the haunted house looms against a moonlit haze, and bats burst from its roof.
- Something splashes in the lake as you pass.
- There's only one witch now, and she's at her cottage in the woods.
- The screaming in the forest comes once each time you go in.
Sounds
- New sounds: splashes in the lake, the armour's tread and clank, the mummy's groan, rain, rustling leaves, thunder and another far-off scream.
Dare a friend
Post your best night with #Ravenscombe and the best runs get shared.