If you scream while playing Don’t Scream you have to restart the game

Some games tell you everything you need to know in the title. Don’t Starve is a classic example. It’s a game about how you need to eat to live. Don’t Scream is the same, only there’s an added layer of challenge. It’s a horror game where, if you scream in real life, the game starts over.

Of course, that means you need a microphone to play it. As Don’t Scream’s Steam page explains, “You must calibrate your microphone in-game so that every whimper, jump, or even a minor squeak is registered as a scream, increasing the challenge.” That doesn’t mean you can’t make any noise—low talking is acceptable—but even a “quiet gasp” counts as a failure. “You could bypass calibration to shout through scares,” the developers go on to explain, “but it’d spoil the thrill. For a genuine horror experience play as designed.”