As the festive cheer of Christmas leaves us all behind, we’re left with the icy chill of winter. And what better to drive this home than a little bit of the ol’ horrorshow with suteF, by Ted Lauterbach. (Thanks to indie horror-guru Amon26 for bringing this to my attention on Twitter.)

At its heart, suteF is a relatively simple puzzle-platformer, but what holds it all together and makes it so horribly compelling is the atmosphere. It is pure, pitch-black nightmare fuel. Putting you in control of a nameless blue figure, he awakes in a surreal, crumbling pseudo-industrial complex, only to promptly cough up a large amount of blood. From here, it only gets darker, with visions of your own death, or perhaps visions of other you’s dying horribly giving you hints and warnings of a sort. Your own characters state and form may change suddenly and without explanation, leaving you having to adapt to a hostile situation.

The low-res graphics are shockingly effective at conveying a remarkably nuanced and horrific atmosphere, with the very rules of the game shifting around you. The level design remains clever, though, teaching you new tricks and forcing you to apply them, just before it yanks the carpet out from under your feet once more, forcing you to adapt once again. It’s well worth a play, and weighs in at only 7mb. Give it a try.