In Taiwan, when people are looking for comfort, they go to a temple and cast “moon blocks” (jiaobei). You drop two crescent-shaped wooden blocks on the floor. If one lands flat side up and the other curved side up, the gods are saying “yes.”
That’s where my game started. A middle-aged woman’s husband is in the emergency room, waiting for an ICU bed. Desperate for comfort, for an answer, she goes to a small temple down an alley and asks the gods, bed by bed: “Will this bed be empty tonight?” Beds one through six: no answer. Then she asks about Bed Seven. Yes.
But the ICU in this hospital has only six beds.
Hospitals in Taiwan are really full, and the emergency rooms are the worst. I’ve seen patients waiting for a ward bed in the ER hallway, with their families sitting on chairs beside them, often all night. I took that reality, added Taiwanese folk religion, and made this game: when someone you love is waiting for a bed, does a thought you shouldn’t have creep in? If someone else’s bed became empty, could my family finally move in and be safe?
It’s a novel-style text horror game you can play in your browser, about 30–40 minutes. It’s still being polished, so I’d love to hear what you think:
- What scared you?
- What made you want to skip ahead?
- If you’re not familiar with Taiwanese culture, did the moon blocks and the setup make sense?
About AI: to be upfront, AI was used in making this game:
- The story, characters and plot are mine. I edited and polished the writing back and forth with AI (Claude and ChatGPT).
- The images in the game were generated with ChatGPT.
- The English version was translated by AI.
- Claude helped write the code.
I know some people have concerns about AI-made work, so I want to be clear about it, and I’m happy to hear your thoughts directly.
