The Exit 8

The Exit 8 (8番出口) is a 2023 walking simulator video game developed and published by Japanese indie developer Kotake Create. The game revolves around the player walking through a Japanese metro station passageway, trying to spot inaccuracies to reach the exit of the station. The game was released on Steam on 29 November 2023 and was later released for Nintendo Switch on 17 April 2024 under the publisher Playism. A virtual reality version co-developed and published by MyDearest Inc., dubbed The Exit 8 VR, is planned to release on 11 July 2024 for the Meta Quest 2, Pro and 3.

The Exit 8 took nine months to develop and was designed to be made in a short amount of time and on a low budget. The game was inspired by the "surreal" atmosphere of underground passageways as well as the Japanese horror game I'm on Observation Duty which inspired the game's looping mechanic. The setting was modelled after several Japanese metro stations, including the Kiyosumi-shirakawa Station in Koto, Tokyo.

The Exit 8 received positive reviews with many critics praising the game for its psychological horror and realistic environment, although critiqued the game for its short length and lack of replayability. In the wake of the game's release, many games released that took heavy inspiration from Exit 8 and were subsequently dubbed "Exit 8-likes". A sequel to the game called Platform 8 was released on 31 May 2024.

Gameplay
The Exit 8 is a first-person three-dimensional (3D) walking simulator type game with elements of puzzle and psychological horror. Inspired by the concept of liminal spaces such as The Backrooms, the game is set in a passageway of the Japanese metro. Every time the player exits the passageway, the passageway seems to repeat seemingly forever with even a passer-by appearing to be caught in the loop. The core gameplay of The Exit 8 is similar to games like spot the difference, where the player must look out for and identify anomalies in the room's layout. If there are no anomalies, the player should proceed down the corridor; whereas if there is an anomaly, the player should turn around and walk the way they came. The player needs to be correct eight times in a row to reach the end of the station. Should the player be incorrect with the assessment of a given room layout, their progress will reset back to Exit 0. Additionally, the aforementioned passer-by acts as a timer. If the passer-by makes it to the end of the passageway before the player leaves, the passageway will automatically loop regardless if the player is right in their assessment or not.

Anomalies in the game can range from subtle differences such as different messages on signs, repeating poster designs, proportion differences with the passer-by or power outages. Certain anomalies can actually reset the player's progress should they not turn back quick enough such as a flood of red water or a man camouflaged as the wall tiles that will chase after the player if they get too close.

Development
The Exit 8 was developed by Japanese indie developer Kotake Create, also known as Kotakenotokeke, who developed the game in Unreal Engine 5. The game was created during Kotake Create's years-long development of another game without releasing anything, which makes them upset. In an interview with Japanese website Game Makers, Kotake Create stated that the game took over nine months to develop, split between six months of planning and prototyping and three months of final development. Kotake Create stated that they love the surreal atmosphere of underground passageways, which inspires them to created a game based on loops. Another influence for the looping mechanic during development was the 2021 adventure game Twelve Minutes, which featured a mechanic where the events of the game would loop after twelve minutes. One of the main inspirations for The Exit 8 came from I'm on Observation Duty, a horror game based on surveillance cameras and finding anomalies, which makes them realize that spot the difference could integrate well with horror themes. Additionally the mechanic of security camera footage reminded them of a looping video, another influence for the looping mechanic.

When making the anomalies for the game, Kotake Create stated they wanted to keep the anomalies at "borderline horror" and "unsettling", citing anomaly inspiration stemming from works such as P.T. and The Shining. During development of the game, early concepts on how to deal with the anomalies included taking pictures of the anomalies using a camera or shooting the anomalies with a gun, which Kotake Create believed didn't match the game's setting. Additionally, due to wanting to keep the development of the game short and low budget, they opted instead to incorporate the "proceed or turn back" mechanic.

Following questions made by BuzzFeed Japan and Game Makers, Kotake Create mentioned that the hallway the game is set in was modelled after a real location although declined to name the station in question to avoid causing the station trouble. Speaking further, they mentioned that an art installation in Kiyosumi-shirakawa Station directly inspired one of the anomalies in the game. The art installation in-question are diagonal ceiling lights randomly scattered across the ceiling of a hallway which is meant to "resemble the hustle and bustle going on above the ground".

Release
The game was first announced on 3 November 2023 with a trailer posted on the developer's twitter account, with the release planned for later that month in both Japanese and English. The Exit 8 would release worldwide on Steam on 29 November 2023. A few days after release, Kotake Create would release a patch for the game to fix an exploit that allowed the player to glitch to the end of the game in under one minute. During the Japanese broadcast of a Nintendo Indie World presentation on 17 April 2024, the game was subsequently released on the same day worldwide for the Nintendo Switch. This version of the game was published by Japanese publishing company Playism. In early June 2024, Japanese virtual reality developer and publisher MyDearest Inc. announced a VR version of the game for the Meta Quest line of headsets. Called The Exit 8 VR, the game is planned to release on 11 July 2024 for the Meta Quest 2, Pro and 3.

Future
Following the success of the game, Kotake Create became a freelance developer after quitting their job as 3D artist at an undisclosed video game developer. In an interview with Japanese website Game*Spark following the release of The Exit 8, Kotake Create mentioned the possibility of creating a sequel to the game, stating that they would rather make a new game instead of updating the original with new anomalies. In a subsequent interview with Game Makers, Kotake Create mentioned that they were considering soliciting real-world advertisements as opposed to the fictional advertisements seen in Exit 8 to "reduce the operating costs". This would later be added upon in late-February 2024, where the developer sent an announcement on their Twitter account that they would be accepting submissions for these guest advertisements to appear in a sequel to The Exit 8. In the following month, Kotake Create launched a Steam page for the sequel under the name Platform 8, with a release window of between "the end of April or beginning of May". Unlike its predecessor, Platform 8 is set on a train that never ends, where the player must spot anomalies to escape the train. The game released on Steam worldwide on 31 May 2024. Following the release of Platform 8, Kotake Create stated that they do not want to make any more sequels in this series, feeling that they are satisfied with the games and wanted to continue working on Strange Shadows, the horror adventure game which Kotake Create paused development on to instead develop The Exit 8, planned for 2025.

Critical reception
Many critics praised The Exit 8 for its use of psychological horror in both the game's setting and how it could affect the player. Meriel Green from Gamezebo described how the game "effortlessly" connects to fears many people have, being getting lost in a subway, adding on that the passageway gave off an "profoundly unsettling vibe". She further commented on how lifelike the environment was and going as far to claim that the gameplay could be mistaken for real footage, which she mentioned further layered on the game's sense of dread. In his review, Rock Paper Shotgun's Ed Thorn mentions how the player's fears are heightened thanks to the passer-by acting as a timer for the player to make a decision, describing the mechanic as a "genius stroke". Jordan Helm from Hardcore Gamer commented on how the game utilises discomfort to create uncertainty and distrust in what the player maybe witnessing. Describing this as the game's "greatest stride", Helm wrote about how the game manages to make binary decision-making stressful due to one wrong decision would cause a reset of the player's entire progress, which would cause paranoia and distrust to seep into the player's judgement.

Conversely, Siliconera's Jenni Lada recounted how the game made her feel comfortable and that the hallway made them feel secure and immersed. Lada commented that because the game made her feel too comfortable it managed to catch her out and make a mistake, adding it can help with replayability saying she found the game "oddly relaxing to take a walk and pick out the 'mistakes'". In Thorn's review, he detailed how the game did an "excellent job" by imitating Japanese comedy and game show humour, adding that some of the anomalies leaned towards the more whacky and fantastical side. He reflected that the game "wouldn't be amiss in a Yakuza".

One drawback critics had with the game was its short length. In Lada's review, she mentioned that if you were good and lucky with the game it would only take the player around "15-30 minutes" to complete, adding further that "once you’ve played it enough times, you’ll have done it all and have no reason to return". Jordan Helm remarked that he hoped that Kotake Create would use the game as a foundation for a more ambitious and bolder project in the future. However, Helm added that Kotake created a "fifteen-minute experience with more warranted involvement and intriguing design" than other games with a longer play time.

Sales
Upon the release of the game, it was announced that the game had sold 30,000 copies within the first day. By April 17, Kotake Create announced that the Steam release of the game sold 500,000 copies.

Two days after the release of the game on Nintendo Switch The Exit 8 became the top most downloaded Switch game that week in Japan, beating out games such as Bunny Garden and Suika Game.

Impact
In an article by TheGamer, Eric Switzer noted how due to the game's short gameplay loop it allowed the game to thrive on social media platforms such as TikTok, which caused the game to gain popularity and success.

Following the release of The Exit 8, an influx of indie games inspired by the premise of the game became available online. Dubbed "Exit 8-like" by both news outlets and the developer themselves, these game feature similar or even identical gameplay to Exit 8 but often set in a different environment and often trying to capture the liminal space aesthetic with examples such a shopping centre, hospital or subway trains. One such game, called "0th Floor -The cursed elevator to Floor 0 -", has the game set in an elevator and has the players looking for anomalies on different floors of a building, all of which has a different setting. Some of these Exit 8-likes leaned more into the more horror aspect of the gameplay, such as adding paranormal entities such as monsters and ghosts. One of the more unique Exit 8-likes is "Track No. 9", a two-dimensional pixelated art-style adventure game where the player searches for 34 anomalies on a subway platform.

In response to the large amount of "copycats", Kotake Create expressed that they do not condone the use of thumbnails or titles on gameplay videos of Exit 8-like games that could be seen as connections to the original game. Additionally the developer shared links to some Exit 8-likes that they were looking forward to and stated that "as a developer, I think it is absolutely ok to make a new game that “puts a new spin on existing games,” as long as it isn’t exactly the same setting or gameplay system etc". One of the most notable examples of this was The Exit 9, which was released on the PlayStation Store in January 2024. Due to the game's strong likeness to The Exit 8, it caused online fans of the game to ask Kotake Create about the copycat to which they denied any involvement with The Exit 9. Verity Townsend from Automaton Media speculated that the developers of the copycat were taking advantage of the fact that the original game was not released on consoles.

Automaton Media reported that following the release of the game, fans online had grown affectionate to the NPC passer-by seen in the game and had created works in his image such as fan art or recreating the character in games like Phantasy Star Online 2 or Soulcalibur VI. Described as a middle-aged man with a receding hairline and dressed in work clothes and a briefcase, the passer-by only walks down the hallway and can occasionally be one of the game's many anomalies, but never actually interacts with the player. Speculating as to why some fans felt so passionate towards the character, the article's author, Hideaki Fujiwara, believed that due to the NPC being the only other real person in the game, fans see the passer-by as a "source of security and familiarity for the player" which the feelings would then continue to build. Seeing as the player has to scrutinise every aspect of the game in order to spot anomalies, they add that it would cause players to notice certain qualities of the passer-by, describing the man as having a "sleeper build". Alternatively, Fujiwara also posited the idea the feelings may derive from the "mere-exposure effect", which caused players to like the character just from walking past them over and over. When questioned about the character, Kotake Create mentioned that they had also become attached to the man during development and liked reading comments about the man from players in reviews. They also noted that the man is the largest 3D model in the game at around 140,000 polygons. The character returned in the game's sequel, Platform 8.

In mid-April 2024, Japanese pharmaceutical company Earth Corporation [ja] (アース製薬) launched a web commercial parodying the game to advertise their mouthwash product, Mondamin. Due to a mistake on the company's Twitter account, Kotake Create responded to users stating that the commercial was not done in collaboration and instead merely granted permission for the company to parody the game.