This is the two hundred fifteenth entry in the Scratching That Itch series, wherein I randomly select and write about one of the 1741 games and game-related things included in the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality. The Bundle raised $8,149,829.66 split evenly between the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and Community Bail Fund, but don’t worry if you missed it. There are plenty of ways you can help support the vital cause of racial justice; try here for a start. Lastly, as always, you may click on images to view larger versions.

Our two hundred fifteenth random selection from the itch.io Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality is lonely, seeking a way out of its isolation. It’s Escaped Chasm, by temmie (AKA Temmie Chang), and its tagline in the bundle reads:

​A small little RPGmaker game about a lonely girl with a connection to anoth…

It’s not Lonely Boy, this time it’s a lonely girl.

I didn’t know, before playing Escaped Chasm, that Temmie Chang is somewhat famous. She even has her own Wikipedia page! Temmie was the lead artist on indie hit Undertale, and its sequel Deltarune. Escaped Chasm is her first attempt at making her own game from scratch, and was intended as a test project as she learned to use RPG Maker (which was also used to make some other recent picks for this series, most notably Moonstone Deep and its sequel Benjamin of Blackstone Edge). But she recruited some high-profile friends: Toby Fox (lead developer of Undertale and Deltarune) provides the in-game chiptune music, while music for cutscenes comes from James Roach and Fat Bard (the latter also provided the music for the sadly non-functional twenty-first Scratching That Itch pick, Blitz Breaker). Escaped Chasm even got some coverage in the gaming press when it released in 2019, including from Rock, Paper, Shotgun which means I probably read about it. But if I did, I don’t remember it.

Despite being made with RPG Maker, Escaped Chasm plays more like an adventure game. There’s no combat or leveling up or anything, just looking around the lonely girl protagonist’s house and interacting with objects. Everything is presented in lavender hues, which makes for an interesting near-monochrome look. The art in general is amazing: not just the pixel art as the girl explores, but also the full-screen cutaway shots, and even multiple fully animated cutscenes that appear throughout. Temmie Chang’s experience with visual art and animation is on display here, and it looks great.

The rest of Escaped Chasm is pretty great, too. It’s a short game, easily completed in less than an hour, although I spent about an hour with it and found two of its four endings. So I don’t want to write too much about it for fear of spoiling things. I can say that I appreciated its depiction of the lonely girl, who has trouble connecting with others and often spends time thinking about (and drawing) an imagined world where she can be exactly who she wants to be. But she always has to return to her actual world, where she struggles with her anxieties and fears. And where, it soon becomes clear, something is wrong.

Escaped Chasm never quite enters full horror territory, but it does get pretty spooky, and apparently one of the endings (that I didn’t get) might qualify as a jump scare of sorts. I would encourage even timid players to give it a try, however, because I enjoyed it a lot. Its short tale is engaging and hints at larger events happening in the background. Indeed, Temmie Chang intended Escaped Chasm to be a small side-story related to a larger game she wants to make. I was pleased to discover that she has indeed made a follow-up game, Dweller’s Empty Path, although it’s also described as a small RPG Maker game, so I’m not sure if it’s the game she originally envisioned or if it’s still building up to that. It’s not in the bundle, but it’s offered for any price you want (including free), so I’m highly tempted to check it out.

Escaped Chasm is also available for any price, including free, so don’t worry if you missed it in the bundle. It includes versions for Windows and Mac, as well as an “Extras” folder with some concept art, a guide to finding the four different endings, and even Escaped Chasm 2 (which is clearly a joke). This one is short and really cool, so it’s an easy recommendation. Check it out!

That’s 215 down, and only 1526 to go!