The Exit 8
, sometimes shortened to Exit 8, is a 2023 indie adventure game developed and published by Kotake Create, also known as Kotakenotokeke. Billed as a walking simulator, the game revolves around the player walking through a Japanese metro station passageway, trying to spot inaccuracies, referred to as anomalies, in the layout of the passageway to reach the exit of the station. The game was initially released on Steam on 29 November 2023 and was subsequently ported to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 in 2024, and on Xbox Series X/S, iOS, Android and Nintendo Switch 2 in 2025 under the Japanese indie publisher Playism. A virtual reality version co-developed and published by MyDearest Inc., dubbed The Exit 8 VR, released on 11 July 2024 for the Meta Quest 2, Pro and 3 and later made available on Steam and the Quest 3S.
The Exit 8 took nine months to develop and was designed to be made in a short amount of time and on a low budget, as Kotake felt another game he was making at the time had too long of a development cycle. The game was inspired by the "surreal" atmosphere of underground passageways and the concept of liminal spaces; the Finnish horror game series I'm on Observation Duty also served a key part in the creation of the game, as it inspired the game's anomaly mechanic. The setting was modelled after several Japanese metro stations, including a station in Osaka and the Kiyosumi-shirakawa Station in Kōtō, Tokyo.
The Exit 8 received positive reviews, with many critics praising the game for its psychological horror and realistic environment, although critiqued the game for its short length and lack of replayability. The VR version received similarly positive reception. The game was nominated for many awards, winning at both the Japan Game Awards and the CEDEC Awards. Additionally, the game has received over 2 million downloads. In the wake of the game's release, various games released that took heavy inspiration from Exit 8 and were subsequently dubbed "Exit 8-likes". A successor to the game called Platform 8 was released on 31 May 2024. A live-action film adaptation of the game was released on 29 August 2025.
Gameplay
The Exit 8 is a first-person three-dimensional walking simulator type game with elements of puzzle and psychological horror. Inspired by the concept of liminal spaces such as the Backrooms, the game is set in a passageway of the Japanese metro. At the start of the game, the rules are displayed on a sign on the wall next to the player, with the player starting at Exit 0. Every time the player exits the passageway, the passageway seems to repeat seemingly forever with even a passer-by appearing to be caught in the loop. The core gameplay of The Exit 8 is similar to games like spot the difference, where the player must look out for and identify anomalies in the room's layout. If there are no anomalies, the player should proceed down the corridor; whereas if there is an anomaly, the player should turn around and walk the way they came in order to progress to the next exit. The player needs to be correct eight times in a row to reach the final exit, Exit 8, to leave the station. Should the player be incorrect with the assessment of a given room layout, their progress will reset back to Exit 0.Anomalies in the game can range from subtle differences such as different messages on signs, repeating poster designs, proportion differences with the passer-by or power outages. Certain anomalies can actually reset the player's progress should they not turn back quick enough such as a flood of red water or a man camouflaged as the wall tiles that will chase after the player if they get too close. Some anomalies are exclusive to different versions of the game such as the VR version. Upon the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 version, a new anomaly was added to pay homage to the film adaptation; the anomaly was also added to the PC and Nintendo Switch versions the same day via an update.
Development and release
Development
The Exit 8 was developed by Japanese indie developer Kotake Create, also known as Kotakenotokeke, who developed the game in Unreal Engine 5. He previously worked for 4 years as a 3D Artist at a Japanese game developer before leaving the company to work on a games as a solo developer. Whilst holding a session at Indie Developers Conference 2024, Kotake laid out three reasons as to why he developed The Exit 8; wanting to release a game on Steam, wanting to make a game in a shorter time span as another game he was working on called Strange Shadows was taking a long time, and wanting to make a game that would sell in order to finance living expenses and development. Elsewhere, he also expressed that he had a desire to make games set in underground passageways. In an interview with Japanese website Game Makers, Kotake stated that the game took over nine months to develop, split between six months of planning and prototyping and three months of final development. In the initial concept for the game, the player would have been able to board a subway train. However, due to development restraints, the concept was dropped to just the corridor setting; the train aspects were later reused as the setting for The Exit 8s sequel. Kotake stated that he liked the surreal atmosphere of confined spaces such as underground passageways, which inspired him to create a game based on loops. Another influence for the looping mechanic during development was the 2021 adventure game Twelve Minutes, which featured a mechanic where the events of the game would loop after twelve minutes. In light of being asked why he chose the number 8 for the game's title, Kotake responded in a tweet that he chose the number casually and just felt that number was just right, though he also stated that he associated 8 with the concept of infinity which linked to the idea of loops. Kotake outlined that the looping mechanic became a difficult part of the development cycle, but it was resolved by creating two passageways with the same structure that would become connected when the player's route actives a trigger that moves the passageways together.The main inspiration for The Exit 8 came from I'm on Observation Duty, a 2018 horror game created by Finnish developer Notovia based on surveillance cameras and finding anomalies, which made him realise that spot the difference could integrate well with horror themes. A core reason Kotake chose to use this game as a reference was to align with the goal with making a profitable game in a short time, mentioning that the genre had untapped market potential and could be created in a short time, adding that ""spot the difference game with a horror feel" seemed like fun to make." Additionally the mechanic of security camera footage reminded him of a looping video, another influence for the looping mechanic. However, to differentiate Exit 8 with Observation Duty, Kotake created the game with a first-person perspective and implemented a mechanic for the player to point out anomalies. During the testing for the game, Kotake was a part of an incubation program for indie developers named iGi run by Marvelous, in which he asked other developers to playtest a prototype for the game during a program-run showcase event. The prototype originally had the player run back to the sign at the beginning of the passageway and then make a U-turn to continue forward when spotting an anomaly. However, due to feedback from friends and iGi testers, the mechanic was changed so the new passageway would load when just turning back to the beginning.
Another way Kotake tried to differentiate the game was by changing the setting from a room to a corridor, specifically inside underground passages and subways. One of the more difficult aspects of developing the game was creating the visuals of the passageway. Kotake devised a workflow of using photos taken by him to create 3D models as well as using assets from a variety of websites such as the MetaHuman Creator, Pixabay and the UE Marketplace, making a policy during development to use store assets where possible. Following questions made by BuzzFeed Japan and Game Makers, Kotake mentioned that the hallway the game is set in was modelled after a real location, although declined to name the station in question to avoid causing the station trouble. Speaking further, he mentioned that an art installation in Kiyosumi-shirakawa Station directly inspired one of the anomalies in the game. The art installation in-question are diagonal ceiling lights randomly scattered across the ceiling of a hallway which is meant to "resemble the hustle and bustle going on above the ground". In August 2025, Kotake revealed the game was originally modelled after a station in Osaka, of which the station's passageway was one he previously travelled through daily to get to school.
When making the anomalies for the game, Kotake stated he wanted to keep the anomalies at "borderline horror" and "unsettling", citing anomaly inspiration stemming from works such as P.T. and The Shining. During development of the game, early concepts on how to deal with the anomalies included taking pictures of the anomalies using a camera or shooting the anomalies with a gun, which Kotake believed didn't match the game's setting. Additionally, due to wanting to keep the development of the game short and low budget, he opted instead to incorporate the "proceed or turn back" mechanic. During development, the "red water" anomaly caused some difficulties to implement. To resolve the issue, Kotake created a static mesh that would follow the structure of the pathway and used a shader to gradually reveal the mesh to create the illusion that the water was flowing. When asked about how the game was developed with simplicity in mind, Kotake mentioned that it was likely a build-up of his feelings and experiences from his 7–8 years as an indie developer, although stated he was conscious of games he likes such as Inside, noting its lack of tutorial.