The Tilted

it doesn't understand. but it imitates.

There is no bestiary. There is no loot. There is one of it.

It stands a little over three blocks tall in its slouch. Its head hangs to one side, like something it hasn't learned to hold. Its mouth is set too low. It has been watching how you play: where you sleep, how you run, what you do when you open your inventory. And it is getting better at being you.

The Tilted is a single-creature horror mod for Minecraft 1.20.1 (Forge). Behind it is a director that decides what it does next, and most of the time that is nothing you will see. It never appears or vanishes while you are looking. It is never faster than you.

It doesn't need to be.

It learns

Pillar up, dig a hole, run in a straight line, jump in the water, fight back. Each chase, it counters the habit you lean on most. Habits fade slowly, so you can feed it lies.

It comes closer

Every night you survive makes it bolder. First the edge of the light. Then your windows. Then your doors. Then it tries them.

It doesn't stop when you do

Log out, and it takes a turn. Open a menu, and it moves. Look at it for too long, and it answers.

And one night, it stops imitating.

Before you play

• It is the only threat. Other hostile Overworld mobs don't spawn (onlyThreat). In an existing world they are removed as their chunks load; named mobs and ones you spawn on purpose stay. The Nether and the End keep theirs.
• It can kill you. Once. Ordinary hits never kill. The last night can, and on Hardcore that ends the world. finalNight = false turns it off.
• Play it in Survival, in a new world. Sound up, lights down. Headphones help.
• Comfort options (effect strength, camera shake and tilt, reduced flashing, FOV narrowing, night mist) live in config/thetilted-client.toml. Every system can be switched off per world in serverconfig/thetilted-server.toml.
• Photosensitivity: encounters can show static, flicker, a VHS-style frame roll and camera shake. reduceFlashing = true removes the frame roll and moving bands.
• Minecraft's background music is off by default. The quiet is part of it. Jukeboxes still play.

First release

This release is built and tested for singleplayer. Multiplayer and dedicated servers should work but haven't been played by real groups yet. Shader packs (Oculus) and OptiFine haven't been tested: if the screen effects break under a shader pack, set postProcessing = false in the client config.

Leave a comment: what felt unfair, what felt cheap, what you didn't understand. That is what the next version is for.

For video makers and streamers

Need a moment on cue? With cheats on:

Credits

The Tilted was conceived, directed and playtested by FlamingFury00. The model, skin, animations, shaders and code were made for this mod. Every sound is cut and shaped from public-domain (CC0) field recordings shared on Freesound; a few vanilla sounds are re-pitched at playback. Thank you to everyone who recorded them.

it's not looking at you. it's trying to be you.