Slender: The Eight Pages is a freeware indie-developed first-person survival horror video game released in June 2012 as a beta for Microsoft Windows and OS X, utilizing the Unity engine. Developed by Mark J. Hadley, the game is based on the quasi-folklore meme figure known as the Slender Man, who is depicted as a tall man wearing all black with a white face with no facial features. The character is known for the ominous abduction of countless children in dark mysterious settings, such as deep forests and abandoned buildings.

Slender: The Eight Pages is set in the middle of a dense forest during the middle of the night, and is played from a first person perspective. The player’s objective is to collect all eight pages located in various areas of the forest while avoiding the Slender Man. As the player collects pages, the fog in the forest grows thicker, and Slender Man appears closer to the player’s character, though the character’s sprinting speed slowly increases as well. Slender Man moves by teleporting, creeping around the player, but only from a certain distance. The player is equipped with only a flashlight to see through the dark (its battery life is limited and will eventually shut down permanently if left on for an extended period of time). The player’s character has the ability to “jog”, which will eventually tire out the player and make her wheeze if forced to go on for too long. Slender Man will occasionally appear in the player’s field of vision, accompanied with a loud piano slamming noise and/or static on the screen. This then allows the ability to “sprint” to become available to the player. “Sprinting” allows the player to move faster than “jogging” does, but will also decrease the maximum stamina available for “jogging” and “sprinting”. A game over occurs when either the player has taken too long to find a note, the player stares at Slender Man for too long, or if Slender Man comes into contact with the player, which will turn them around and end the game. The game over screen shows Slender Man’s face up close and blinking static pulses.[1]