Oneway.exe and horror found in the fading internet

In the lead up to Halloween, I’ve been dabbling in many different short horror games, experiencing some of the worst fates imagined by developers. I’ve been sliced, diced, chased, brutally assassinated, and inducted into a few different cults. One game in particular has stuck with me: Oneway.exe, which gained traction as an indie demo and has been released on Steam with the subtitle Module 1.0.

As you may have guessed from the .exe, this is a game about playing a game. There are a few different minigames, loosely bound together by broad themes like copypasta, the fascination with lost media, and conspiracies flourishing between friends. The different games are hosted in rooms, which are all linked together under the premise that you’re playing a forbidden, dangerous game. The game, titled Oneway.exe, is at the center of a swirl of urban legends, spurred on by the fact that one of the developers mysteriously died during the game’s creation.