Announcing Squared Stiff: Stay in the Light

I'm excited to officially announce Squared Stiff, a dark, atmospheric survival game currently in development for iPhone and iPad.

At its heart, Squared Stiff is an endless maze runner built around one simple rule:

Stay in the light.

You awaken inside a sprawling maze of abandoned rooms, decaying corridors and forgotten underground spaces. The environment stretches endlessly in every direction, changing as you travel deeper into it. There is no final exit waiting to be discovered and no rescue party coming to find you.

Your only objective is to survive for as long as possible.

The Darkness Is Coming

Most of the maze is hidden in complete darkness. Your flashlight reveals the path ahead, but its battery is constantly draining.

As the remaining charge gets lower, the beam begins to weaken and flicker. Corridors disappear into shadow. Shapes become harder to recognise. Every turn becomes a decision between continuing forward and searching for another route.

Batteries are scattered throughout the maze, but reaching one may require travelling deeper into unfamiliar territory. Collecting a battery restores your flashlight, buying you more time—but never safety.

If the light goes out, it's game over.

Something Is in the Maze

You are not alone.

Ghastly creatures wander the corridors, patrolling the maze and responding to the paths around them. They do not pass through walls or simply appear beside the player. They inhabit the maze alongside you, travelling through the same hallways and intersections.

Avoiding a ghost may mean reversing direction, slipping through a side corridor or abandoning the route you had planned. A path that appeared safe moments earlier can quickly become a trap.

Contact means the end of the run.

An Endless, Changing Environment

Squared Stiff uses an expanding maze system that generates new areas as you explore. The world continues to grow around the player while previously visited corridors remain available to navigate.

The maze begins in a disturbing abandoned hotel filled with stained walls, mould, locked doors and unsettling paintings. As you travel farther, the surroundings begin to change. Hotel corridors give way to caves, tunnels, sewers and other forgotten spaces buried within the maze.

Each area has its own architecture, decorations and atmosphere, but all of them belong to the same impossible structure.

There is no clear border telling you that one place has ended and another has begun. The maze simply changes around you.

Simple Controls, Unforgiving Decisions

Squared Stiff is designed around straightforward four-direction movement. Swipe to move through the maze, change direction at intersections and immediately reverse when danger appears ahead.

The controls are deliberately simple. The challenge comes from reading the maze, managing the flashlight and making decisions while under pressure.

Do you continue into unexplored darkness?

Do you turn back toward a corridor you recognise?

Was that shape at the edge of the beam part of the wall—or something moving?

Every run is about pushing a little farther and surviving a little longer.

A Distinct Low-Poly Horror Style

Squared Stiff combines low-poly 3D environments with chunky, pixel-inspired textures and heavy directional lighting.

The maze is not brightly illuminated simply so the player can see the artwork. Darkness is a core part of both the visual design and the gameplay. Rooms are revealed through the flashlight itself, allowing walls, objects and creatures to emerge naturally from the shadows.

The result is a style that feels somewhere between an old horror game, a miniature diorama and a nightmare assembled from blocks.

Currently in Development

Squared Stiff is being built natively for Apple devices using Swift and RealityKit.

The core systems are already taking shape, including the expanding maze, themed environments, flashlight battery management, collectible batteries, roaming ghosts and player movement. Development is now focused on building out the world, improving the atmosphere and giving the maze more ways to surprise—and kill—the player.

There is still plenty more hiding in the dark.

We’ll be sharing development updates, new environments, creatures and behind-the-scenes looks as Squared Stiff continues to grow.

For now, keep your flashlight charged.

The maze is waiting.