P.T.—Playable Teaser—was originally released by Konami in 2014 as a teaser for Silent Hills. That game was ultimately cancelled but P.T. took on a life of its own as a small, extremely creepy, slow-burn horror game. It was exclusive to the PS4 at the time, but numerous recreations have appeared on PC over the years, most of which have fallen victim to takedown notices courtesy of Konami.
QT is a little different. It takes place in a poorly-lit apartment that's obviously very similar to that of P.T., but everything inside it is, well, cute. It's not entirely without jump scares, but even those are cute: A rock thrown through a window might startle you (the first time, at least) but the rock has a warm, friendly smile and adorably stubby little legs, and the "look behind you" message sounds ominous but it's really not—it's just someone who wants to say hello.
The game is "weird and not straightforward," as creator Happy Snake Games described it on Itch.io, but while it might seem almost entirely non-interactive, that's not actually the case. Finding a pair of gloves hidden in a secret room near the boarded-up door (sorry for the spoiler, but you might miss out on a lot of the game otherwise) enables interactivity with various objects, which will in turn allow you to explore more deeply, discover an apparently large number of secrets, and pick up some simple achievements.
It's still silly, yes, but dammit, it's cute, and a lot less stressful than worrying about what's waiting for you behind that door in P.T.
QT is free on Itch.io, but Happy Snake hopes it will encourage players to support its Kickstarter campaign for the Compendium of Cuteness, a trio of games planned for early 2020 that will include QT, a museum exploration game called Musem, and Kouen, "the most experimental" of the group, in which you'll play as a park ranger "and get super lost as you try to follow a map and stumble across strange things you didn't know existed." The campaign has a goal of £3200 ($4077) and runs until July 15.
Thanks, RPS.
