Alternate Watch

Guide to the Game: Identify the Oddities, Live Through the Night

Let's enter the monitoring nightmares

Alternate Watch is a free, independent horror game that draws inspiration from I'm on Observation Duty and The Mandela Catalogue (before Volume 4). The game was first made available in an early version in May 2022, but it soon became popular enough to receive significant content updates in June 2022 and April 2023. Developed in Unreal Engine 5, it features high-end visuals powered by Lumen Global Illumination (which can be turned off in settings for better performance).

Set in a single, eerie home, the game challenges players face are to monitor security feeds and report subtle—and increasingly terrifying—anomalies before 6 a.m. Failure to detect and report changes in time may result in horrifying consequences.

How to Play and Survive

Your objective is simple, but the tension is real:

Watch the rooms. Spot the anomalies. Survive until 6 a.m.

Gameplay Mechanics:

Monitor multiple rooms via security cameras.
Identify anomalies from several types (listed below).
Report them correctly via the report system.
Avoid missing too many—if too many anomalies are active, the game ends.

Principal Types of Anomalies:

Imagery: Over time, paintings and photographs change.
Displacement: Things shift from where they were before.
Mimicry is the practice of impersonators or duplicate objects attempting to blend in.
Impersonators of humans who are deformed and flawed are deemed flawed.
Pure Form: shadow-like figures with luminous white eyes.
Preacher – A cloaked, whispering entity.
Electrical – Lights, TVs, and other electronics behave abnormally.
Tulpa – Entities only visible through mirrors.
Corpse – A newly added terrifying anomaly.
Unknown – Unclassifiable and disturbing phenomena.

Note: Open doors are not “Displacement”—they mean someone has entered.