Co-op horror heist

Threadbare

Teddy bears against the dark. Cross the Seam into a nightmare house, the dungeon beneath it or the caves beneath that, and carry back Glimmer to keep the Lantern Tree alight, and whatever you do, keep your stuffing in. Solo or up to 4 online.

Play in browser

Needs a browser with WebGL 2. Best with a keyboard and mouse; phones and tablets get a touch stick and buttons, and start on low graphics. Co-op runs on a small game server that dozes when nobody is playing, so the first crew of the day can wait a minute or more for it to wake.

A teddy bear’s-eye view of a dark room: the Matron, tall in a bonnet and a white apron, holds up a lit candle over the bear’s two honey-coloured paws. A window glows red on the left; a grandfather clock, an old television and a bookcase stand on the right. The HUD shows 11:00 PM and the stuffing and wick bars. — Threadbare, captured in the browser.

A little about the game

Gumdrop Hollow runs on the Lantern Tree, and the Tree is going out. The only magic left is beyond the Seam, a rip in the candy sky, and beyond it is a family house where you are 0.42 m tall, the Under-house below it and the caves below that, rebuilt from a new seed every expedition. Your crew of teddy bears goes through with a lamp that burns its wick, sniffs out loot, and carries or throws it back to the cairn on the front path; bumped and dropped loot loses value, and heavy things go faster with two bears. Every third expedition is the Feeding: bring the Tree its quota and the extra comes back as Glimmer to spend on supplies; come up short and the Hollow rots a step (two if you bring less than half), and at four steps it goes dark. In the house the Matron wakes to noise and walks the halls by candlelight, Porcelain moves only when no bear is looking, and something breathes in the wardrobes. Under the house a blind Warden follows sound; in the caves the Threadworm moves only in the dark and Mother smells Glimmer. A bear whose stuffing runs out leaves a husk the crew can carry home to restitch.

Your first few minutes

Name your bear and pick a fabric, then press Go alone, or Host a crew and share the five-letter crew code (friends type it next to Join). In the Hollow, press Through the Seam (solo) or I’m ready. The mouse locks to the game (if it lets go, click the game). Find the way in, press R to sniff out loot, grab it with E and carry it back out to the cairn. To leave early, every bear stands inside the circle and one holds E. How to play, on the title screen and the pause menu, has every creature’s rules.

What this browser remembers

Runs are not saved: a run lasts until the Lantern Tree goes out or you quit to the menu. This browser remembers your bear’s name and fabric, your settings (sensitivity, invert look, volume, field of view, graphics quality and reduce motion), whether you have played before (for the first-expedition hints) and a random token for co-op. In co-op your bear’s name, fabric, token and chat go to the game server; it keeps a dropped bear’s run state under that token so a rejoin picks up where it left off, and keeps nothing once the room closes.

At the controls

WASD or arrows / mouse: Move / look
Shift / C / Space: Run (loud) / sneak (silent, fits under tables) / jump
E or click: Grab or drop, carry a friend’s husk, flip Mister Pins, unlock a gate; hold at the cairn to go home
G or right-click: Throw (fragile things break)
X: Use what you hold: wind the Music Box, wish on a Wishbone, restitch with the Needle
R: Sniff out nearby loot and what it is worth
F / Q: Lamp on or off (the wick burns only while lit) / ping a spot for the crew
Enter or T / Tab: Chat in co-op / crew list
Esc / M: Menu / mute
Touch: Left stick to move, drag the right side to look, GRAB / THROW / USE / JUMP / SNEAK / RUN / SNIFF / LAMP / PING buttons

The game's own menus include more controls and settings. Sound starts after you interact with the game.