The Cradle: Trick-or-Treat
Free · play online in your browser, no download
A Halloween side story to The Cradle: twenty doors at a children's party in an old sanatorium, some hiding a child with a sweet and the rest hiding Nanny. The solo developer says most of the code, engine included, was written by Claude Code.
Official site 0xkot.itch.io, verified Nov 3, 2026. Linked by name in the developer's own r/ClaudeCode post; the developer's own itch.io page (0xKOT).
Where to play
Every platform this game is on. Links are checked against official sources; we never host or mirror games.
- Play free — itch.ioitch.ioReleased · itch.io status: In developmentFree
Plays in the browser on itch.io. No download.
Browser (no download) · Mobile · Official link verified Nov 3, 2026.
About The Cradle: Trick-or-Treat
The Cradle: Trick-or-Treat is a short, replayable first-person horror game for the browser, a Halloween side story to The Cradle: Episode 01 that you can play without knowing it. At a children's Halloween party at the Swallow sanatorium there are not enough sweets, and twenty doors line the corridor. Behind some of them a child gives you a sweet; behind the others Nanny opens, and her doors drop you into a dark labyrinth with her right behind you. Following the music to the orange light gets you out with her striped sweet, but if she catches you she takes every sweet you carry; wardrobes and lockers in dead ends let you hide and hold your breath. Every door is dressed differently, and the doors that hide children share a feature that changes every game, so you read the clues and remember where she was. There are five levels from easy to hardcore (fewer children, a faster Nanny, failing lights), an endless mode with three lives after you win, a daily rule that gives everyone the same doors, personal bests and 16 achievements. It runs on PCs and phones, in English and Russian. The developer says almost everything in it, from the rooms and props to the children, Nanny, the sounds and the music, comes from Episode 01. The solo developer, 0xKOT (Encrypted Cat), built both games on a custom three.js engine, NHR, and says most of the code for the engine, its tools and the games was written by Claude Code; this side story took three days from first file to live. Free in the browser on itch.io, with a name-your-own-price download.
How it was built
Partially verifiedIn a post on r/ClaudeCode (12 Oct 2026, UTC) the developer writes: “I'm a solo dev, and most of the code was written by Claude Code.” The statement covers the whole project, the NHR engine, its tools and both Cradle games; the post lists “The Halloween side game, Trick-or-Treat, took 3 days from first file to live” among its numbers and links this game. The developer describes the workflow: Claude proposes a plan that the developer approves or changes, two or three agents often work in parallel in git worktrees and open pull requests that the developer reviews, and agents prove fixes with headless playthroughs and screenshots. The model is not named.
- Developeritch.io AI disclosure: AI Assisted, Code. — itch.io
Built on NHR (Narrative Horror Runtime), the developer's own engine for narrative horror on three.js, whose levels are written as YAML and compiled into 3D maps, per the r/ClaudeCode post. The release devlog calls it a small Halloween side game rather than a new episode and says almost everything in it, including the rooms, props, children, Nanny, sounds and music, comes from Episode 01. The developer says it took three days from first file to live.
- Engine / framework
- Three.js (NHR, the developer's own engine)
- Languages
- JavaScript
- Team size
- 1 (solo)Developer ReportedReddit (u/EconomyPrudent6511)
- Initial build time
- 3 days from first file to liveDeveloper ReportedReddit (u/EconomyPrudent6511)
- Development time
- Not disclosed
- Development cost
- Not disclosed
- AI-written code
- Not disclosed
“I'm a solo dev, and most of the code was written by Claude Code.”- I built a custom horror game engine with Claude Code in 4 weeks (r/ClaudeCode)
- The Cradle: Trick-or-Treat is out! (itch.io devlog)
Verification notes: AI use from the developer's post on r/ClaudeCode by u/EconomyPrudent6511 (12 Oct 2026, 02:02 UTC), read from the Arctic Shift Reddit archive on 6 Nov 2026; it links this game and Episode 01. “Most of the code” is the developer's wording for the whole project, not for this game alone, so no AI code share is recorded. Story, features, platforms, languages and the AI disclosure (AI Assisted, Code) from the itch.io page, and the release from the devlog post “The Cradle: Trick-or-Treat is out!” (8 Oct 2026, 17:38 UTC), both read on 6 Nov 2026. The itch.io page went up earlier with a teaser devlog (6 Oct 2026, 21:24 UTC), two patches followed on 9 Oct 2026, and the itch.io status still reads In development. A crawl of the web build found no calls to AI services. The post's 200+ players and 7 streamers cover both games and are the developer's own figures, not metrics. Unlike Episode 01, this page shows no content warning. It is listed separately from Episode 01 because it has its own itch.io page, rules and modes. The game was not played.
Development history
Teaser devlog on the game's itch.io page: “The Cradle: Trick-or-Treat is coming soon.” (21:24 UTC).
Observeditch.io (0xKOT devlog)Released on itch.io, playable in the browser (devlog at 17:38 UTC).
Observeditch.io (0xKOT devlog)Patch 1 (lit children, a louder way out and a How to play screen) and Patch 2 (painted doors, toys on the step and door clues introduced level by level).
Observeditch.io (0xKOT devlog)The developer describes the engine and both Cradle games, built mostly with Claude Code, on r/ClaudeCode.
DeveloperReddit (u/EconomyPrudent6511)
Game performance
Each figure measures something different — concurrent players, owners, downloads and sales are never interchangeable and are never added together. Labels show where each number comes from.
itch.io
Free in the browser (HTML5) on PCs and phones; on iPhone the developer suggests adding the page to the home screen to play full screen. The download (a 36 MB zip) is name-your-own-price.
Not publicly available: itch.io rating, Gross revenue.
Reviews & rankings
Not yet reviewed by our editors.
Not currently ranked.
Sources
| Source | Type | Published | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| I built a custom horror game engine with Claude Code in 4 weeks. 200+ people have played the games and 7 streamers have streamed them (r/ClaudeCode) Reddit (u/EconomyPrudent6511) | Social post | Oct 12, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| The Cradle: Trick-or-Treat by 0xKOT itch.io | Store page | Oct 6, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| The Cradle: Trick-or-Treat is coming soon. itch.io (0xKOT devlog) | Devlog | Oct 6, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| The Cradle: Trick-or-Treat is out! Free Halloween horror in your browser itch.io (0xKOT devlog) | Devlog | Oct 8, 2026 | Nov 3, 2026 |
| The Cradle: Trick-or-Treat devlog itch.io (0xKOT devlog) | Devlog | Not confirmed | Nov 3, 2026 |
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