You See a Monster Smoking in the Parking Lot.
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
It's Monday. You're driving home. It's late. You feel like shit.
You need something comforting. Some good ol', American fast food.
And then you see it.
A monster. Smoking. In the parking lot.
What do you do?
A horror-dramedy text adventure that ends in just one or two actions, but has 33 unique endings to discover.
Some conclusions are dreadful and uncomfortable. Others somber. A few are just plain absurd. You set the tone.
Investigate the smoking monster or kill it, think about your life, buy food, laugh or cry, drive away - and many options in between.
Inspired by minimalist text adventures Aisle and Pick Up the Phone Booth and Die, and the mental image of catching a Disneyland character actor smoking in the parking lot in full costume.
Created by DancingEngie for Scream Jam 2025
The download file also contains a full list of content warnings and an endings guide.
Mac and Linux versions are untested.
Download
Install instructions
Unzip and run the executable file.
You might get a security warning about it, but that's because it's unsigned. Feel free to examine it in VirusTotal if you don't believe me.
Comments
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Sorta lost my cool for a moment...
Decent amount of stuff. I'm an on-and-off completionist, not having a way to figure out what endings I had was a deterrent to that, but I sense that wasn't the point of the game. I like that you can iteratively figure out just about everything involving the situation, and the van is a decent way to give each route a snappy finish. I also like the clues in the dialogue that point to other endings. Text adventures with actual visuals aren't too common, but I do like this a lot more than other text adventures. I do like the best and true ending, escaping alive with hope for the future. Good work.
Thanks for playing! There is a ‘canon ending’ if you want to figure out why the place keeps exploding, and what the monster wants. But as you figured out, the game also reacts to as many prompts as possible, even extremely silly ones. Glad you enjoyed it!
No problem, I'm always looking to help other creators get their work noticed. Though I will say I didn't think the place was exploding, I thought I was getting hit by some car in the distance based off the sound. Though I may look into this again in the future, glad I was able to share this project for you!
absolute cinema
Amazing game, great message and story with a good amount of silliness.
Awesome Fun Game!! Love this style of game silly but deep.