Intensive (S)care Unit
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Lia, a junior resident, steps into her first night shift in the ICU, expecting exhaustion, not trepidation. Alongside her senior, Satria, this shift begins to unravel in unsettling ways—bells ringing from empty rooms, whispers crawling through the halls, and the dead returning with unfinished business.
As Lia confronts an eerie truth, she begins to question: is this night shift outside the bounds of reality—or has she crossed over herself?
Violence, Death, Blood, Critical Illness, Gore, Foul Language, Biological Horror, Use of Drugs
Contains flashing imagery and jumpscares. Player discretion is advised.
- 14k+ Words
- Multiple Endings and Epilogues
- Ghosts from Indonesian Folklore
- "Press The Bell" gameplay
- Paranormasight-Inspired Animations
- A very brutal and unforgiving night shift
Nominated to:
azureXtwilight - Project leader, Main Programmer, Writer,
ratifuu - Character Art, CGs
Yui Enajori , Elliot Asante - Backgrounds
Eric Jeffrey Tan - Music
NSAID - GUI Design
Elseth - Proofreader, Beta Tester
Irvan Putra - GUI and Minigame Programmer
Envato Elements, Pixabay, tokiko220 - Free sound and image resources
Status | Released |
Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux |
Rating | Rated 4.9 out of 5 stars (19 total ratings) |
Authors | azureXtwilight, irvanipy, Elseth, ejtanmusic, Yui Enajori, NSAID |
Genre | Visual Novel, Adventure |
Tags | 2D, Female Protagonist, Ghosts, Horror, minigames, Multiple Endings, Short, supernatural, Thriller |
Development log
- We Got Nominated to Best Monster in the Competition!43 days ago
- Ghost Stories61 days ago
Comments
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Hello
Do you have an email address I can contact? It's for a content creator related inquiry :)
Hello! You can reach me at discord : azurextwilight
sent, thank you!
Thank you! That was our intention!
I didn't find the happiest ending in my playthrough, but I LOVE THIS
Thank you so much for playing!!!!
some spoilers**
I really enjoyed this game and the characters! at first I thought, "Oh they're all dead and this is like all fake" but nope i was wrong lmao and the fact that these are based on true stories adds a nice touch! As a side note, I'm still missing the extras on the middle bottom, if anyone knows how to get them, please tell me.
edit: i looked through the comment and i got it! also while i was shuffling through the comments i kept the game open while the bells were ringing till i noticed a sound change only to find the dead Satria scolding my ass i felt so bad after ๐ญ๐ญ
LOL you will get a bad ending by missing the bells XD And thanks for playing!!! Please look forward for a longer version of the game!
The game is really cool! I had a lot of fun playing it! The visuals are really great, and the music and sound are well-combined too. Well done!
Thank you so much!
OOOOOOH this was such a cool vn!!! The art totallyyyy gave me Paranormasight vibes, but isn't a direct copy of it, sprites and CGs and the VISUAL EFFECTS ESPECIALLY WOAHHHH it all look SO good, very polished!! Getting all that art done in a month is quite the feat, set a great atmosphere~
I loved the touch of clicking the ER buttons (or being too late if you take too long to), experiencing any of the story branches in whatever order you see fit.
Very compelling narrative the whole way through, and I loved the music too with its creepier shifts as time goes on. The UI was great too, it fit really well with the unsettling hospital theme of everything. I couldn't figure out how to get the bottom middle 'extras' CG ending, but every other playthrough had its own touch of creepiness and a satisfying epilogue segment~
I'd love to see what you make of this in the future if you ever expand on the story / this universe!!! :))
Thanks for playing! A hint to get that ending : Save Angela and Mr. X first, then go to Mr. Mulyono's room for the 3rd time!
The story and how it plays in the game with the choices is something I honestly haven't seen in other indie VNs, there are a BUNCH of choices to make and you can take them at different moments in the game, this is very fun however it is also a bit convoluted and the lack of manual saves or a skip button (Maybe there is one I just couldn't find it...) makes the task of replaying parts a bit annoying.
In fact that is what made me stop after getting 2 endings, which I have to mention where REALLY good and satisfactory, you know what else was really good and satisfactory? all this Indonesian folklore I had no idea existed but I absolutely adore, great job integrating it on the story, I love when games teach me from different cultures while they spook the hell out of me!
Keep up the good work!
Hello! Thank you for giving the game a chance and thanks for the feedback! You can press shift to skip the dialogue, or via the options menu, but we'll make sure to implement it in an easier way! We plan to make a longer (non jam) version and we look forward to you playing it!
A very fun game! I love how the choices are set up-- I haven't seen that in a game before, and I think it pretty innovative! The music is great, the visuals are beautiful and eerie, and I love the UI. Thank you for telling me to check it out!
Thank you so much for playing the game!!!
played this on my channel. at first it thought it was cool but as it went on i was heavily invested into the story as u could probably tell. especially the story with the little girl. overall i wasnt able to get everything but i did have a pretty good time with this.
Oh hey!!! Thanks a lot for playing it on your channel! I hope you had a great time!!!
i did have a great time
OMG Azure you captured the horror spirit so, so well with this! This was so well done, amazing art and GUI overall, with eerie soundtrack that became broken(?) and that made me so alert haha. That pesindhen was so, so creepy hahah... Also I was so heartbroken with Satria... Waaah ๐ญ If you're going to expand this with more creepy lores, I'd be very excited!
There are plans to expand it! But maybe not for jam so I can work more freely with it!
Thank you so much for playing!!!
This was fantastic! First of all congrats on absolutely nailing the feeling of unsettling and exhaustion that is nightshift on a ward! Everyone who's ever been there has heard/experienced stories like this and you brought them to life wonderfully! The art, the music, the writing were all on point and the choose a room gameplay was awesome. Amazing job all round!
Thank you!
!! BEWARE, MULTIPLE JUMPSCARES !!
Ahem. With that out of the way...
A surprisingly heartfelt story and cast of characters, considering how creepy it comes across at first!
Really well done!
I'd never been exposed to those aspects of Indonesian folklore, so thank you for sharing that.
Took me a while to get the final ending; had a feeling I knew what I needed to do, but figuring out the correct order was a struggle. ^^; Worth the effort though! ๐ฏ
(Spoilers below)
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A nice mix of morbid tragedy and (largely) positive outcomes in the epilogues, especially the special ending. The state of healthcare workers is definitely still precarious, so thank you for shining another light on the topic, and also for the hopeful ending re: the possibility for change in the industry.
I do wish the "empty" rooms played more of a role in the game. From what I could tell, they could be mostly or even entirely ignored while trying to get the different endings and epilogues.
Also, good use of foreshadowing! I did notice early on how Lia and the nurse's sprites moved back and forth, meanwhile Satriya's were stationary the whole time - just didn't know what that meant (if anything) until Mrs. Mulyono's revelation. Clever!
You are the first to notice about the foreshadowing without me telling out loud, even the other team members didnt notice! amazing observation!
And thank you so much for playing! I wish to expand upon the game, is there anything you wish to be added? The empty rooms did have a special ending tied to them, but I would like some inputs!
Haha wow, no kidding! Clearly the foreshadowing is solid then, if it's so subtle even your team didn't pick up on it! ๐ช
An expanded version of the game would be really cool! ๐
One thing I think the game would benefit from is more moments of rest and downtime in between all the high octane horror. Once Lia's shift started, the intensity felt like it was at 8/10 or higher all the way until the very end, when suddenly her shift is over (if she lasts that long ๐ ).
(Possible spoilers below)
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Especially considering Mr. X will die if not attended to quickly, and his story is really intense, so padding out the story with more short moments of slower pacing so we can catch our breath between the (jump)scares would be welcome.
I am also curious to know a bit more about "Fatima" (if that's her actual name), from Mr. X's epilogue CG, and also the (nameless newbie) Nurse - does she have her own epilogue?
"The empty rooms did have a special ending tied to them, but I would like some inputs!"
Oh interesting, maybe I missed that ending then...? I got the Bad Ending, Normal Ending, and 5 Epilogues along with all the CGs so I figured that was everything.
I guess I'll wait until the guide is out to see what I might've missed.
Also, I would find it really helpful in the in-game Extras menu if missing CGs had text hints or hover tooltips with some guidance on how to unlock them - so that it's not necessary to check the upcoming guide on itch except as a last resort if really stuck (even if such hints only unlock after getting at least 1 ending, or 1 epilogue, meeting specific conditions, etc.). โฅ
That is amazing feedback! I've speaking to my team about this as I write. Something to keep track of everything would be great (and we ran out of time so the special ending doesn't have any CG to it)
A break would be great! I might need to add the hours to a 12 or 24 hours shift, which is also realistic since I had that during pandemic lolol
Glad to hear that about the feedback. ๐
That makes sense re: the special ending - the time crunch is real lol. It's honestly impressive how much artwork y'all finished in just one month for the jam! โฅ ๐ช
A 12 hour shift for a "full" release would be cool. ๐ Should give ample time for some calmer sections in between story beats, and even give you a chance to add more patients, if you wanted to and/or flesh out (heh) existing ones.
IMO, 24 hours would prolly run the risk of (even worse) scope creep: true horror when it comes to game dev. ๐ฑ ๐
Also, oof... sorry to hear that about your pandemic shifts. That sounds brutal even during "normal" times. ๐ข
(Possible Spoilers)
Sheeeesh. What made this game so scary was the chilling reality that is the ICU. Understaffed, overworked, and dealing with all sorts of frustrations and complaints. Mr. X was a great example of something that could easily be a real situation that someone working in an ICU has to deal with. I ended up with the Normal ending, and the Satria part was a cool twist that I wasn't able to predict. Overall, this was a thrilling exploration of the psychological effects of working in such a high-pressure environment. Also - poor Mrs. Selvi ughhh.
Outside of the story, I loved the art style and the music was perfect. This was beautifully done.
Spoiler alert
Mrs. Selvi still lives if you don't go through her route
And thank you so much for playing! I wish to expand upon the game, is there anything you wish to be added?
I think it was great as is! I'll have to do some different routes.
just wow. i dont even know where to start
[spoilers ahead!]
i didn't even get all the endings yet but this game has such a beautiful and emotional story. never did i think, starting this game, that i would get so invested in all these characters - the way you wrote all of them, with their individual ambitions and flaws and backstories, made them all feel so real. satria and angela's stories were the highlights of this game for me - they're just so well written. genuinely this game took me through such an emotional rollercoaster, from fear to happiness to sadness all at once. i was DESPERATELY REPLAYING to get to the good ending for angela
i rly want to talk more about satria. right from the beginning he was such a sympathetic character - but the ending truly made him one of the most memorable characters in this game. when i got to the end my jaw DROPPED
and can i just say i love the mechanic of having us choose which room to go to? i didn't think we'd get so much freedom for this game LOL but wow. rly stressed me out
so grateful to have come across this game, it really was a lovely experience. thank you so so so so much for sharing, and i'll look forward to your next projects
also love the cultural elements in the story haha southeast asia represent!!!
Thank you so much! And I am really glad you like Satria's story because it is something personal to my heart.
I am wishing to make a sequel or something similar so we can introduce more SEA ghosts!
There are so many wonderful things I can say about this project. For a horror title, which is very effective at the kind of horror it wants to convey, it's strangely comforting in the best kind of way. There's something intrinsically horrific about real life and death is a part of it. This devastation from loss doesn't take away from its beauty though and that comes through earnestly in the VN. The setting and characters are written in a very grounded way despite the paranormal elements and the subject matter. It's one I've been telling you was always a strength of your work! How you write characters. :))
Thanks for sharing more of your work and perspective with us. Looking forward to the next one!
Thank you for playing and I am honestly so touched by your comment!!!!
Finished a run blind and had to come back and see everything I could! There's way more than I expected here, I think I got 5 endings in total? But this was a really engaging journey!
The horror was really engaging, I thought! Really felt the Paranormasight vibes in the art, but the setup w/ the horror also kinda gave me Death Mark-series vibes? Probably more so, we're completely unprepared to be in a scenario haunted like this and it shows really well!
Very compelling, I enjoyed this a ton!
Thank you for playing the game! I think you already got all the endings!
I need a guide, please?
I am liking the game a lot
We plan to release a guide some time next week!
Yaaay
I just lack of one cg
I really love the game<3
Which one is it? Maybe I can helpp
I don't know, the one in the middle of the bottom row
Save Angela, then Mr.X, then visit Mr. Joko for the 3rd time!
The art in this one is gorgeous and the atmosphere is very spooky. It was fun trying to unlock all of the scenes too!
It's impressive you were able to make so many art assets which are all so high quality in such a short period of time, this is a really ambitious project!
Thank you so much! We're very lucky to have a professional artist on board, their work ethic is just amazing.