Dread & Breakfast

WARNING: FLASHING LIGHTS — there are some flashing effects in the game from the abilities' VFX (specifically the 'Trick of the Light' haunt). If you have a photosensitive condition, please consult a doctor before playing. Immediately stop if you experience symptoms like dizziness, eye twitching, or loss of awareness. Reduce risks by playing in a well-lit room, reducing screen brightness, and taking frequent breaks.

Thanks for playing—this project was a big experiment for me during a game jam, and I had a ton of fun making it. I hope you all enjoy playing it as much as I did making it! Comment if you encounter any glitches/bugs.

Originally built in Unity 6 with C# for Mini Jam 208: Inverted. 

SUMMARY

Dread & Breakfast is a cozy-spooky top-down haunting strategy game. You’re a ghost on an overnight shift where your job is to scare visitors until they flee and make sure they clear out of the house before dawn.

Fans of games like Plague Inc., Slay the Spire, and Ghost Master (2003) will find a lot to like here — mouse clicking gameplay, roguelike structure for replayability, room-based modifiers, ramping night difficulty, and five scare categories to master.

HOW TO PLAY

• Pick a haunt on the action bar, aim the ghost hand, click to deploy (1–6, Q for ultimate when ready). Energy refills over time—don’t waste it.
• Each ability has scare tags (e.g. Auditory, Visual, Touch, Environment). Guests have fears and weaknesses—match tags to land scares.
• Earn Fright Points and watch the clock—the night is short. Night 1 includes a short HUD tour (map, energy, guests, abilities).

Box of Tricks — Tab or the on-screen button opens the shop: browse haunts and drag cards onto the bar. Use ARCHETYPES (and related UI) to learn guest types or take a breather.

There are 17 haunts (abilities) with varying effects, 3 ultimates, 6 unique guest archetypes, 13 prop types, 6 room types, and 5 unique scare categories (Auditory, Visual, Touch, Environment, Psychological).

CONTROLS

Mouse	Click to interact, hover for info
1–6	Ability slots
Q	Ultimate (e.g. Second Wind) when available
Tab	Box of Tricks
Space	Pause
Esc	Close library if open; else pause
Left Ctrl	Toggle world inspector lock (same as UI)

TOOLS & ATTRIBUTION

Studio: Gold Leaf Interactive

Audio: CC0 (Freesound.org) plus generative tools (e.g. Suno, ElevenLabs), edited in-project. Names, assets, and credits may change post-jam—this matches the current build. 

AI Note: Dread & Breakfast is the work of a solo developer, myself (Gold Leaf Interactive). A supervised in-editor AI assistant helped with parts of code scaffolding and implementation; my work ownership as the developer includes ideation & preproduction, systems & level design, creative direction, gameplay authoring, wiring, debugging & tuning, audio direction & implementation (SFX, layering, mixing), Unity build-out, final implementations and overall taking the project from concept to shippable prototype build.

Third-party audio assets are credited separately. Multiple directed AI models were used in tandem to plan and produce art (Meshy) and some audio (mentioned above) for the game. Some visuals are coded effects made during production (shrinking & scaling anims, pulsing effects, and other similar VFX).