This gem surfaces soon
We have it ready, but it is not unsealed yet. Come back when it opens.
Opens on 2026-08-12 (JST)
A 2D retro game glitches, and the madness bleeds into three dimensions. Without driving it mad, you cannot find what matters most.
Per Steam's own listing, this is a horror adventure with a two-part premise stated up front: when a 2D retro game goes mad with glitches, that madness bleeds into three dimensions. But without driving it mad, you cannot find what matters. You are at the far edge of a cloud space, a graveyard of games, playing the retro game in front of you while watching your back for whatever is closing in behind. The question the store text poses is whether you can save Aby, hero of an unfinished game abandoned to the wrong ending, and pull them out of it; various games connected by memory appear along the way. Made and self-published by the solo developer Midori Games (also credited as みどりげーむず), whose eight-title Steam catalogue includes an earlier trilogy, No Ghost in Stay Home, No Ghost in Circus Caravan and No Ghost in Sky Elevator, that reviewers of this game reference by name as the same lineage. Priced at ¥1,200, it is Positive at 91 percent across 11 reviews (10 positive, 1 negative), a paid title, not free, fully launched and not in Early Access, with no AI-generated-content disclosure and Steam's content descriptors completely empty. English, Japanese and several other languages are all supported, so nothing is stopping you. One honest note up front: 11 reviews is close to this site's floor, though reading them directly shows organic, specific Japanese-language commentary, playtime figures, spoiler tags and references to the developer's earlier series, not a thin or hollow review base, and no genuine English-language coverage exists yet, on AUTOMATON WEST or elsewhere. Of those 11, 7 are in Japanese and 3 are in English.
Published 2026-08-12
01First, the one feeling
- Most horror games with a threat-behind-you mechanic give you one thing to manage. Here you're managing two clocks at once, the retro game you're actively playing and the thing approaching in three dimensions, and neither one pauses for the other.
- Being told outright that you have to make the inner game worse to get anywhere reframes what 'progress' feels like. Every glitch you deliberately cause reads as a small act of sabotage against something you're also trying to protect.
- The graveyard-of-games framing turns a horror premise into something closer to grief: Aby isn't a villain to defeat, but an abandoned hero stuck in the wrong ending, and the glitching is how you go back and finish what someone else left broken.
02Who this is for (and who it is not)
For you
- You want Pony Island's core idea, a game you escape by breaking rather than winning, carried into a fresh shape
- You want a horror game that asks you to split attention between two layers at once, an active game-within-the-game and a threat closing in behind you
- You want small and self-published: solo developer Midori Games' eight-title Steam catalogue is entirely self-published, content descriptors completely empty
Not for you
- You want a settled number; 11 reviews is close to this site's floor even at a strong rating
- You want a game already found in the West; of 11 reviews only 3 are in English, and no English coverage exists yet
03The roots of this taste
91% positiveonly 11 reviews — yet almost no one has found it
GLiTCHiA Buried gem
Per Steam's own listing, this is a horror adventure with a two-part premise stated up front: when a 2D retro game goes mad with glitches, that madness bleeds into three dimensions. But without driving it mad, you cannot find what matters. You are at the far edge of a cloud space, a graveyard of games, playing the retro game in front of you while watching your back for whatever is closing in behind. The question the store text poses is whether you can save Aby, hero of an unfinished game abandoned to the wrong ending, and pull them out of it; various games connected by memory appear along the way. Made and self-published by the solo developer Midori Games (also credited as みどりげーむず), whose eight-title Steam catalogue includes an earlier trilogy, No Ghost in Stay Home, No Ghost in Circus Caravan and No Ghost in Sky Elevator, that reviewers of this game reference by name as the same lineage. Priced at ¥1,200, it is Positive at 91 percent across 11 reviews (10 positive, 1 negative per Steam's own review API), a paid title, not free, fully launched and not in Early Access, with no AI-generated-content disclosure and Steam's content descriptors completely empty. English, Japanese and several other languages are all supported, so nothing is stopping you. One honest note up front: 11 reviews is close to this site's floor, though reading them directly shows organic, specific Japanese-language commentary, playtime figures, spoiler tags and references to the developer's earlier series, not a thin or hollow review base. Of those 11, 7 are in Japanese and 3 are in English.
Give it your first passPony Island The origin
The origin of this taste: Pony Island, the Daniel Mullins game that established the idea that a game trapping you is something you escape by breaking, not by winning it as designed. GLiTCHiA is not an official Pony Island work, but it carries that same idea forward into its own shape: the retro game you are playing in front of you is what has to be driven into glitches to progress, while a second, three-dimensional threat closes in from behind, so the corruption you are causing and the danger you are managing run on separate clocks at once.
Give it your first pass04Make this gem shine
If it speaks to you, check it on Steam and give it your first pass. Your push is what makes a buried gem shine.
You gave it your pass. The gem just caught the light.
05The bloodline of this taste
- Pony Island Root
- GLiTCHiA You are here
- Read-and-build games another taste