Bleak is a short horror game made for the Game Chill 2013, and as such Bleak worked around "Fancy dinner party", "Prayer", "Gingerbread men" and "Bing Crosby".

Truthfully, the result is a fairly disappointing little game with sudden changes, flashing images you get used to quickly and a possibly frustrating start.

You are at your fancy dinner party, enjoying yourselves, but alas .. you made a mistaaaake.


I never made any gingerbread men before nor have I eaten them, is that weird?

Next you face a dramatic, drastic change and soon (as in : instantly) find yourself in search for a flashlight and clothing. You have two minutes to get that or you will freeze to death.
This bit is in fact the only one where I felt the pressure and tension rising - but if you make too many missteps, you will have to repeat it a couple of times or use a walkthrough, as you have to obtain items in a certain order.
So while I managed to do it in right away in the second playthrough, it can cause a lot of frustration if you do not.

You then go on to explore the area more closely and take any clues you can get - you even have your next goal written out for you in the corner, so you know what to do. Although in the both instances that happened, it was pretty obvious.

The repeatedly flashing images of guess-what are too short to recognize what is shown right away, and does little to scare you.

The game as a whole builds around gingerbread men, without ever making it a good point. In fact, everything related to them is more amusing than scary, and the attempt at doing otherwise falls flat.
You even collect gingerbread men scattered across the areas as an optional gimmick - as well as additional clothing. It does not serve any purpose other than the collection itself. At the end of the game you will be shown how many you have found.

What is left is an attempt at an cold brutal horror-world where you do not know where you are and where to go to. The music (one piece repeating) suits this atmosphere and the cold, but I never felt any tension aside from the initial death sentence. It is supposed to be more dramatic than it actually is.
I did not feel engaged and was just moving along. The only enemy you face is the cold.
There is no story to be found, there is no answers to the sudden changes to be had, there is not much to do in the first place.

You wander around, you arrive somewhere, and you end in a simple way. Done.

I commend the attempt at bringing these random elements together, but the game as it is has little to offer.