Mad Father

The player controls Aya, the protagonist. Aya can explore the entire manor where the game is set. To access some rooms, however, it is necessary to solve puzzles or find items. Enemies can attack Aya, but the player can escape them through Quick Time Events before the protagonist's life ends. Scattered throughout the mansion, the player can also find gem-shaped collectibles through side challenges, which can be used to unlock an additional scene after the credits.

In Northern Germany, a shy, 11-year-old Aya Drevis lives with her father Alfred and their maid Maria. Her father performs secret research in his laboratory in the house's basement, with the assistance of Maria. Aya is aware that Alfred experiments on and kills humans in the basement, as well as the fact that he is involved in an extramarital affair with the younger Maria, a former homeless woman he had taken off the street some years prior, who he originally planned to use as a test subject for his experiments until she changed his mind.

On the anniversary of her mother Monika's death, the very beginning of the game, Aya awakens at midnight to find herself surrounded by test subjects that escaped from the laboratory. Fleeing back into her room, Aya encounters a mysterious salesman, Ogre, who offers her the task of solving puzzles to break into her father's laboratory and uncover his secret. At the end of these puzzles, Aya discovers that her father had intended to perform taxidermy on her and convert her into a doll, as he had done to numerous other children, having been enamored with preserving humans after having killed his own mother as a youth. Aya soon discovers that her father killed her mother in fear of her mother taking Aya away to prevent him from performing taxidermy on her after her mother found out about his plans to turn Aya into a doll.

Mad Father has received positive reviews. Chris Priestman of Indie Statik called it a "well-told story" and a "fantastic horror game". Screen Rant writer Anastasia Wilds ranked Mad Father the 7th-best RPG Maker horror game, and wrote that it will "terrify gamers while also challenging them with its tough difficulty." She also wrote that there are "great twists in the narrative". TheGamer included Mad Father on the list "10 Best Japanese Indie Games", writing that "there's something about Mad Father that somehow conjures true fear, even in the limited 8-bit visuals it presents itself in."