Calm Time is a short indie freeware horror game created by Goos Entertainment, a development group composed by Ivan Zanotti (The creator of Imscared), RevoLab (the creator of 7Days) and Bellini Virgil. It was released on November 20th, 2013.
You are a person who lives in a small house in the countryside, far away from civilization. There, silence and quietness are the norm, and only the wind and the birds break that silence from time to time. Still, things can get lonely from time to time, so you have invited some people to the house for a party. Everything seems to be going pretty well during the party.
Then shit hits the fan without warning and everybody finds themselves trapped in a house with a killer, far away from any source of help, their lives at the stake.
The game can be downloaded here
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WARNING: The game contains a huge twist early on, and as such, half the tropes on this page are spoilers. Read at your own risk.
This game provides examples of:
- Ax-Crazy: The killer, being a psychotically violent sociopath whose only motive for murdering people is because the killer likes peace and quiet. Even though they were the one who hosted the party to begin with.
- The Bad Guy Wins: In the end, the killer manages to get all of the victims.
- Big Bad: The killer, the player themself, is the one going around killing everyone at the party after inviting them to slaughter them all.
- Book Ends: The game begins and ends with your character's monologue. The only difference is in the beginning, the music was a peaceful melody; in the end, it's much more darker and sinister.
- But Thou Must!: There is no way to hand Elena the kitchen knife. You have to stab her.
- Creepy Basement: The house's basement contains the corpse of a woman chained to the wall.
- Death of a Child: One of the people invited to the party is a little kid, and he is just as vulnerable as the rest of the guests.
- Dissonant Serenity: Your character is eerily calm while murdering people.
- Foreshadowing: "You don't look like a bad person. I like you!"
- For the Evulz: Considering that the killer’s reasoning for offing their guests is extraordinarily flimsy, being that their motive for murder is liking the quiet despite inviting said guests in the first place, it’s not hard to imagine that they’re really just killing people for its own sake.
- Hero Antagonist: The ghost lady does her best to get between you and your victims.
- Jump Scare: The ghost lady randomly appears outside your field of vision when you get spotted by the guests or when you murder somebody.
- Lights Off, Somebody Dies: Inverted. The first victim dies before the lights turn off.
- Mythology Gag: You can find a painting in the top part of the house. The painting features Whiteface, or something resembling it.
- Nothing Is Scarier: After the death of the first victim, the peaceful sounding music that was playing until that moment abruptly stops, and the game remains devoid of music all the way to the end, occasional Scare Chords aside.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: The ghost of the girl who died in the basement constantly haunts the player through the game.
- Overdrawn at the Blood Bank: The guests will leave splatters of blood every now and then while they're attempting to crawl away. It's actually baffling how the little kid's body can hold so much blood.
- Scare Chord: After the lights go off in the house, piano chords may randomly play during the game. They are there to keep the player tense.
- Ten Little Murder Victims: The basic premise of the game.
- Villain Protagonist: The player is the killer.
- You Monster!: Whenever the ghost appears, there is a chance that she yells "MURDERER" at you in a creepy spectral voice.
