Source: Markiplier
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DON’T STARE speed dating: What You Need to Know
THE TL;DW
- Markiplier dives into DON’T STARE speed dating, a free browser/indie horror game by developer Gabe M Carvalho.
- The twist: instead of clicking, players hover their cursor over a date’s “weak spot” and stare until the increasingly bizarre characters get uncomfortable and flee.
- The video is sponsored by Ridge, worked in alongside Markiplier’s reactions to the game’s oddball cast of dates.
The Jupiter Take
DON’T STARE flips the usual horror-game script into a short, mechanic-driven oddity, and Markiplier’s reactions to its parade of unsettling “dates” are the real draw. It fits his long-running pattern of spotlighting small itch.io horror projects before they blow up.
Context
Markiplier has built a huge chunk of his channel around discovering quirky, short-form indie horror and oddity games early, often giving tiny developer projects a massive audience boost overnight. DON’T STARE is one such title: a browser-based game built in GameMaker by developer Gabe M Carvalho (with art and music from Owen Melisek) where the core loop is simple but tense — hover over a date’s weak spot, stare long enough, and watch them break down and bolt before the clock runs out. The game originated from the 20 Second Game Jam, which explains its short, replayable “how many rejections can you rack up” structure rather than a traditional long-form horror narrative. Its blend of dating-sim and “spot the anomaly” horror has made it a minor darling in itch.io’s horror community well before Markiplier’s spotlight, and his channel’s history of similar discoveries — like his recent coverage of FAILROOMS — suggests this could send a fresh wave of players and ratings toward the small dev team behind it.
