So we made a game about rules horror...

Hello everyone, we're a small game development team from China (so apologies for any English mistakes), consisting of two full-time members including myself and a few friends who help out part-time. Straying Rules is a co-op adventure game we've been developing over the past year, so I'm thrilled to introduce it to you all.

Over the past few years, my friends and I have played many co-op adventure games, including Escape the Backrooms, The Outlast Trials, Lethal Company, and REPO. We love the cooperative experience these games offer: parts that are tense and thrilling, and parts that are fun and even chaotic. We saw an opportunity to create a game that combines our favorite elements from these titles while adding original twists. That's when we stumbled upon “规则怪谈”—a genre of online horror fiction popular in Chinese internet circles over recent years, built around contradictory rules to craft terrifying narratives. After researching online, we discovered a similar concept exists in English: “Rules Horror.” This confirmed our vision to turn this intriguing concept into a cooperative game.

That said, unlike established universes such as SCP or Backrooms, Rules Horror lacks a cohesive world-building framework, making it challenging to establish consistent standards for constructing its rule-based worlds. Furthermore, while most Rules Horror stories emphasize creating contradictions, these inconsistencies often overwhelm players during gameplay. Balancing the gaming experience with the immersive feel of a Rules Horror world remains a significant challenge. After months of development and testing, we're bringing our first complete level here, hoping to gather your feedback.

Here are some key features (rules?) of the game:

1. We aim to recreate the feeling of confronting an unknown world and its threats found in rule-based horror tales. Thus, many elements remain ambiguous: no maps, no objective markers, no item descriptions, and rules that may not even be valid—everything must be discovered through gameplay. For a long time, the game even had no explicit objective descriptions, but many testers complained about having no idea what to do. We've now added brief objective descriptions, though how to complete them still requires exploration.

2. We didn't aim to create a traditional horror game where ghosts jump out to scare you to death after a few minutes. We use a third-person perspective and avoid jump scares as much as possible, hoping more people can enjoy this game. That said, we still strive to create a unique atmosphere—one you might actually feel while playing.

3. Like Escape the Backrooms and The Outlast Trials, we want the game to be enjoyable whether you play alone or with friends. All objectives can be completed solo or cooperatively. This does impose some design limitations, but we believe it's worth it. As mentioned, you and your friends likely won't clear the game in a single attempt—and even if you do, you won't experience everything. So don't fear failure; it's part of the journey to success.

4. Have fun playing, and let me know your thoughts—whether it's ideas for gameplay improvements or the kind of rule-breaking horror elements you'd like to see in the game!