Really neat and small experience! Remind me of old and small game experiences like Calm Time and Hide (2012) :D
Vartio2025
Vartio
2025 indie.io72Good
Playtime
BriefIt typically takes about 1 hour to finish the game.
Playable on
- Steam DeckVerified
- Steam MachineVerified
Available on
- $1.99
Game modes
Details
- Launch
- August 12, 2025
- Developer
- Pepperbox Studios
- Publisher
- indie.io
- Themes
- Genres
Overview
Patrol a haunted forest as a lone medieval guard in this short psychological horror experience. Leave the safety of your watchtower, listen for threats in the dark, and uncover what's lurking beyond the trees—before paranoia consumes you.
Screenshots
Reception
Players77
Good- Steam77from 43 reviews
The game concept and artstyle is cool, sound design is at least ok, maybe better than just ok. However, the problem lies in that the game introduces the core that is useless - it's completely linear, or at the very least, feels like so. At some point you just give up on trying to explore anything, because you expect these actions to be useless. Hope...
Vartio is a brief psychological horror experience built around a simple but effective premise: being alone in a place where every sound and shadow can become a potential threat. Developed by Pepperbox Studios and published by indie.io, it casts the player as a medieval guardsman assigned to patrol the wilderness surrounding an isolated watchtower. What...
Visually deceptive and very unnerving sound design. Very much worth the price.