Christmas at Morleyville Mall Windows game

A different take on the horror genre, Morleyville Mall lets you choose from a variety of roles with a varied degree of haunted activity: store owner or worker, teenage thrill-seeker doing the "overnight challenge", security officer or police detective investigating the many unfortunate incidents on the premises; Food Court worker, chef, maintenance guy, or paranormal investigator. Either switch between roles or try to make it as far as possible as a single character or as a store owner running your business in the ... unique... business environment which Morleyville Mall offers.

Granted, there have been a few unexplained occurrences in the building. Staff complain about apparitions, disembodied voices, poltergeist activity, people being crushed by falling mannequins or Big Baby Bob Five-Foot Beanbag Plushies (tm). Waitresses in the Gnibbling Gnomes Family Restaurant complain that the "gnomes are (g)naughty at (g)night", whatever that means. Burger-flippers in the Food Court claim that someone else flips their burgers, usually on the floor. Customers sometimes run screaming from stores claiming to have seen a "dark figure".

The mall management has issued the following statement: "Management asks everyone to remain rational. Ghosts do not exist, mannequins do not fall unless someone pushes them over. Teenage pranksters are the likely cause for many of these incidents, in fact security has caught several such hooligans. Other incidents have obvious natural causes. For example, the giant Big Baby Bob Five-Foot Beanbag Plushies (tm) are so abnormally large and tippy that they will inevitably topple over on occasion, especially when store clerks insist on placing them on the topmost shelves. Claims of apparitions and voices can be attributed to bad indigestion from people eating too much in the Food Court, although we are obviously not discouraging anyone from enjoying the delicious food there. But the public should rest assured that the mall is a safe and fun place to shop, socialize, and dine, as well as a great place to run a business."

Nonetheless, many of the employees and customers are not convinced. One toy store employee said: "I don't care what they say, those Big Baby Bobs are heavy and have a large, flat rear-end, much like the management team except those guys have large, round rear-ends. And I have personally heard giggling while walking past the Gnibbling Gnomes restaurant after closing, when no one else was around. I have seen the Mad Hatwear store's mascots - the creepy ones that look like a shiny green Mad Hatter or something - move their head. They don't even have any machinery inside, they're solid plastic. I now avoid that part of the mall."

Features:

* Around a hundred stores and food shops to explore or work in, as well as restricted areas.

* Play several employees of the mall in sequence, choosing from a list each round. If horror games aren't your cup of tea, the more sedate roles can allow you to (usually) avoid the worst haunted activity, albeit at the cost of a larger number of tasks to complete. The final version will allow the option of running a business in the mall. Rental rates are low. Mall management practically pays YOU to move your business here.

* Randomized behavior for the spooks insures that the game never becomes a predictable routine. You'll need to think on your feet, not memorize a pattern.