Interactive Horror Story Game With 20 Endings: NEO

NEO, my interactive horror story game, didn't start as a big project. After Protokol-Ø, I wanted to try one specific thing: a story where the branches really branch, where two players could finish and have genuinely different experiences. A small experiment. It didn't stay small.

The hook: a choose-your-own-adventure horror story

Your friend is missing. The clock has stopped at 17:34. The same day keeps repeating. And the wrong door kills you.

That is all I'm going to tell you about what happens, and I mean it. NEO is built on not knowing. Every time I've been tempted to explain more on a store page or in a clip, I've stopped myself, because the first time through is the only time you get to not know. I'd rather protect that than sell it.

How a small experiment became dozens of doors

The first version had a handful of scenes and a couple of endings. It was enough to test the idea: does a choice feel like a choice when the story is this short? It did, a little. Then I started asking "what if the player goes the other way here?" and refusing to shrug.

That question is dangerous. Every time I answered it, the story grew. A branch needed its own consequences, which needed their own scenes, which opened new doors. By the time I stopped, NEO had 285 scenes, 675 branches and 20 endings. I didn't plan those numbers. I just kept not shrugging.

The whole story is free. Nothing in the story is locked behind a purchase. I wanted anyone who started to be able to reach any ending by playing, and I didn't want to put a paywall between a player and a door.

Keeping 675 branches honest

The real work wasn't writing scenes; it was keeping them consistent. When the same day repeats and the player has seen different things each time, it is very easy to contradict yourself. A character knows something they shouldn't. A door is open that was closed.

A lot of evenings went into tracking what the player has seen and done, and chasing contradictions, rather than writing anything new. It's unglamorous work, but a horror story that doesn't hold together isn't scary, it's just confusing.

Writing a horror game with multiple endings

Twenty endings sounds like a lot, and it is. The trap is making most of them feel like failure states. I tried hard to make each one a real end, with its own tone, so that players who reach a "bad" one still feel they finished a story rather than hit a wall.

I won't describe any of them. Some of my favorite moments in NEO are endings almost nobody finds.

What surprised me

NEO started in Turkish, and the first players were mostly Turkish. I translated it into English and then other languages, and seeing it get downloaded in countries I've never been to was a strange, happy feeling. Fear translates. Hesitation translates.

I also learned that the first few minutes decide everything. If the opening doesn't grab, nothing after it matters, however many branches are waiting. I've gone back to those minutes more than to any other part of the game.

Where it is now

NEO: Interactive Horror Story has been on the App Store since July 2026. I keep updating it: fixing contradictions players find, smoothing the opening, improving translations. The story itself is complete and fully free.

If you start, one piece of advice: take your time. The doors aren't going anywhere. You might be.