The game is called Mad Father. Yes, this is how easily and casually the player is introduced to the events, simply by having a telling title. The mad father is the key character of Mad Father. He seems to be a doctor and a scientist, but a rather strange one. He does such horrific things that a butcher's job would suit him better than the intellectual profession of a scientist. But we shouldn't rush things – let's take it step by step.
Mad Father was created by an independent game developer known as Sen. He developed it using a special program called Wolf RPG Editor. In terms of graphics, Mad Father strongly resembles jRPG games, which are churned out by anyone and everyone using RPG Maker. Remember To the Moon? Well, the visuals in Mad Father are quite similar. Although To the Moon might not be the best example… Or maybe it is. To the Moon turned out to be a wonderful game in terms of narrative delivery and possessing such a poignant story that sometimes it made you want to cry. The storyline of Mad Father evokes roughly similar emotions.
However, the genre of Mad Father is quite strange for such projects. Mad Father is positioned as a "horror" game, which means that players will encounter frightening moments, blood, violence, and hordes of "living" corpses. One cannot say that the game is big – it can be completed in about four hours at a leisurely pace, but for an indie game, this is standard. Additionally, Mad Father features three different endings.
The game takes place in Germany, in the northern part. The Drevis family, consisting of the "egghead" Alfred and his daughter Aya, resides in an old mansion. A year has passed since the beginning of the game since the tragic death of Monica – Aya’s mother and Alfred's wife. This deeply saddens Aya, but even more so it troubles her father – Alfred. He constantly locks himself in the basement, where he conducts some important scientific experiments. But Aya has known since childhood what these experiments entail. Her father is a maniac who maims and kills people. Yet, instead of running away without looking back, Aya chooses to live under the same roof as this monster, and that by her own decision. Why? It’s simple. She loves him; he is her only relative who has never harmed her and always gave her presents.
One night, Aya heard a scream, but it was not the victims of mad Alfred screaming; it was Alfred himself. It turns out that the house is flooded with grotesque creatures among the doctor’s victims: men, women, and even small children. Monsters, ghosts, spirits, phantoms – all these entities emerged as a result of a curse placed on the Drevis family home. The victims returned for revenge. But Aya doesn't want her father, even such a horrible villain, to be killed by zombies. She sets out on a perilous journey to find a way to save both Alfred and herself.
The gameplay is quite simple. The player must navigate through locations, observe objects, or interact with them. Along the way, there are many puzzles to solve, and players often encounter various types of dead people – friendly or otherwise. Players also need to collect gems since they affect the ending of Mad Father.