Disconnected

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🎮 Disconnected 🧠 Inspiration

Disconnected draws inspiration from Needy Streamer Overload and Five Nights at Freddy’s. We wanted to explore the illusion of control — how love, obsession, and digital dependency can twist into something darker. By combining management simulation with survival horror, we aimed to create a story where the player’s choices feel intimate yet terrifying.

💡 What It Does

In Disconnected, you play as the manager — and supposed boyfriend — of an online streamer. Your job is to help her reach one million followers by managing her mood, stream schedule, and online persona. But as days pass, the illusion unravels: stats become harder to control, her behavior becomes erratic, and soon, you’re no longer managing her — you’re trying to survive her.

It’s a pixel-horror experience blending:

Emotional stat management

Multi-camera surveillance

Psychological storytelling

A shocking late-game twist

🧱 How We Built It

Engine: Built in Kirodev, leveraging its Scene and Dialogue systems for dynamic storytelling.

Art: 32×32 pixel-art tiles and character sprites with a dark, VHS-inspired palette.

Sound: Layered ambient loops and distorted voice effects for tension buildup.

Gameplay:

Early game: Visual novel + management system.

Late game: Real-time camera defense (FNAF-style).

AI Behavior: Custom pathfinding and emotion decay system driving the girlfriend’s unpredictability.

⚙️ Challenges We Ran Into

Balancing player empathy and fear — making the character feel real before she becomes a threat.

Integrating two distinct gameplay genres (management + survival) into a seamless loop.

Pixel lighting and camera transitions within Kirodev’s 2D scene structure.

Designing a narrative that reveals itself gradually through UI degradation and player observation.

🏆 Accomplishments That We're Proud Of

Creating a consistent emotional arc that evolves from romance to horror.

Achieving a dynamic day/night and stat system that affects dialogue and visuals in real time.

Crafting pixel visuals that maintain both charm and dread.

Building a tech demo that runs smoothly in Kirodev with modular code for future expansions.

📚 What We Learned

Narrative pacing is as important as mechanics in psychological horror.

Small details — flickering lights, delayed responses, ambient distortion — matter more than big jumpscares.

Balancing empathy and discomfort keeps players emotionally invested.

Using Kirodev’s lightweight scripting allowed faster iteration on story events.

🚀 What’s Next for Disconnected

Add voice snippets and livestream overlays for deeper immersion.

Expand the storyline with branching endings based on player management style.

Introduce a “Streamer AI” that reacts to your decisions dynamically.

Prepare a Steam / itch.io demo release with full localization support.

Begin conceptual work on a spiritual successor, Tahanan — exploring Filipino psychological horror in a similar pixel style.

Built With

• devvit
• phaser.js