Andy’s Apple Farm: Short, Creepy, and a Little Weird

Andy’s Apple Farm is a short 8-bit horror game with a CRT filter that immediately sets the tone. It looks simple, plays simple, and at first feels almost harmless. Movement is handled with the arrow keys, and you use the space bar to interact. That’s it. No complicated controls, and no need for any tutorial.

When you first load the game, you’re given one fresh save slot and one that’s already been played—but that second save has eight bonus stickers unlocked? That immediately feels off, but the game doesn’t explain it. It just sits there, quietly hinting that something already happened. More on those stickers later.

This is the itch.io version, so keep in mind it’s not the full experience. It’s essentially Chapter One. Because of that, the story is pretty unclear and mostly open to interpretation. I’m not even going to pretend I fully understand it. The game briefly mentions a boat accident, and spoiler warning—there’s some implication involving either a man or a kid killing someone else with an axe. Of course it’s an axe... why wouldn't it be an axe?! You’re on a farm.

Before things really kick off, you’re introduced to the in-universe “developer” of Andy’s Apple Farm—not the real developer—named Thomas Eastwood. He claims he’s looking for beta testers for this new game.

Once you spawn in, you can either head straight down or go to the right. If you want to actually play the game, go right. That’s where things start.

Andy meets his friends:

Felix the Fish, Melody the Moon, Margret the Mole, and Claus the Clock. Each one wants to play a game with Andy, but every mini-game has something slightly off about it. Nothing is outright scary at first—it just feels strange in a way that’s hard to explain.

The real goal is to complete the mini-games and collect the bonus stickers. Once you start doing that, the tone shifts. The game is broken up into short mini-games, each lasting around five or six minutes.

The screen glitches. It cuts to black. Visuals distort. Characters suddenly look too real, with human eyes layered onto their cartoon faces. It’s unsettling in a very specific way. Not panic-inducing, heart-racing horror—but the kind where you lean back in your chair and go, “Yeah… I don’t like that.”

Some moments genuinely caught me off guard. Nothing extreme, but enough to make the experience uncomfortable in a good way.

Honestly, I don’t have a strong opinion either way. The game is fine. It’s not groundbreaking, and it’s not especially intense. If anything, it feels like a good entry point for someone who’s curious about horror games but doesn’t want to jump straight into something overwhelming.

If you’re going to play Andy’s Apple Farm, I’d recommend the Steam version instead. It’s more updated and digs deeper into the story and lore. The itch.io version feels more like a demo meant to hook you and push you toward the full release.

That said, for a free experience, I liked it. You don’t pay anything, you get a solid feel for the game’s vibe, and there’s more to do than you’d expect for something that only takes about 15 minutes to play through. The aesthetic works, the atmosphere lands, and it feels like a genuine throwback.

Do I regret downloading and playing it? No. But I’ll be honest—you could also watch a video on it and get pretty much the same experience.

There’s also an ARG tied to the game, at least at the time of writing this. I didn’t dig into it, and I’m not even sure if it’s still active. I wasn’t really interested in going down that rabbit hole.

Still, Andy’s Apple Farm does what it sets out to do. It’s short, creepy, and weird enough to stick with you for a bit.

Andy’s Apple Farm is available on itch.io and Steam