Anthology of the Killer is a series and collection of nine horror comedy games that were developed by Irish independent game developer Stephen Gillmurphy under the pseudonyms "garmentdistrict" and "thecatamites". The nine horror games in the series were released for free on Game Jolt between 2020 and 2024, the first game being Voice of the Killer in December of 2020, before a paid collection of all nine games with bonus content was published in May 2024 for Windows, macOS, and Linux. A port to the Nintendo Switch and PS5 was later released in April of 2026. The series stars a young woman named BB, a college student and resident of a city filled with serial killers who explores her surroundings to find "spooky" content to write about for her zine. In the nine games, she ends up in bizarre and dangerous situations from her encounters with various serial killers and other creatures.
Stephen Gillmurphy created the game series due to his interest in combining humour, horror, surrealism, and mystery to tell bizarre stories about BB as a "recurring heroine". He put particular balance between the humour and horror elements, in part to create a never-ending cycle of the two. The collection's bizarre elements were further enhanced by his game design patterns, in which he combined content like the drawings' features and improvised the game's levels. The Anthology of the Killer series has been praised by critics for its comedy-horror balance and general surrealism, especially from the visuals and humorous dialogue. At the 2024 Independent Games Festival (IGF), it won the Nuovo Award and was also nominated for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize and another award for Excellence in Visual Arts.
Gameplay
The horror games of the Anthology of the Killer series are primarily walking simulators; the player controls BB to explore environments and walk to hovering bubbles to read dialogue from her and other characters. Periodically, the player character has to escape from pursuing antagonists, though there is no penalty for failure. The player cannot control the game's camera – instead, it follows BB, at times in erratic fashion. As a result, especially in earlier episodes, the player sometimes has to navigate BB through spaces without knowing where to go.
Plot The games follow a college student named BB, who lives with her sister ZZ in an apartment complex in the serial killer-ridden "XX City". BB writes her own zine focused on eerie happenings, and frequently ends up in dangerous situations as a result of her searching out stories. XX City has an extremely high murder rate, and foremost among its many serial murderers is a supernatural bird-headed figure known only as "the Killer". When not interacting with other characters, BB gives her thoughts on the current situation in a non-continuous monologue.
Voice of the Killer BB gets a job as a cold caller at the insurance company Life Contracts, where she notices several strange occurrences, such as all the employees being covered in sheets, a heavy police presence, and a welcoming party for the Killer. That night, BB has a surreal dream and wakes up to a message on her phone telling her the Life Contracts office has burnt down.
Hands of the Killer ZZ sends BB to explore the depths of their apartment building to find things to sell online. While doing so, BB stumbles into a night college devoted to creating a new world via murder, led by the elderly Professor Zoo. Though the faculty and students consider real murder kitsch, they mistake BB for a "My First Strangle Victim" doll. While escaping, BB accidentally disables the college's security system, allowing the Killer to enter and murder everyone as BB escapes.
Drool of the Killer BB investigates a mysterious bus service that takes her to a swimming centre named "Tammy". BB discovers that the namesake individual of the centre is actually the ghost of a schoolgirl drowned by the Killer, who since her death has been transforming buildings into water parks to fulfil her vision of the new economy. Outraged that Tammy's water is unchlorinated, BB apparently kills Tammy by knocking over a bottle of chlorine onto her.
Eyes of the Killer BB is conscripted into the city's immersive theatre production of "Melmo the Wanderer", where she plays "Potsy the Mop Girl", a character who has one line before being killed. Annoyed by her inability to discover more about the plot, as the stage manager believes the actors should know no more than their characters, BB abandons her role and explores backstage to try and find out the identity of her character's murderer. After escaping from murderous policemen dressed in bear costumes, BB tries to inform the theatre's director, Bosso, about this, but discovers she is a member of the same cult that the night college belonged to. Bosso explains that BB did the cult a favour by allowing the college to be wiped out, as the college had diluted the cult's message and the CCTV footage of the massacre made money for the cult when they released it as direct-to-video horror film Bloody Night IV. Bosso reveals that the wealthy owners of the city fund the immersive theatre and the murder of its audience to satisfy their desire for bloodshed. After a climatic scene in the play, where a character resembling the Killer murders characters representing the Sun and Moon, BB is dismissed from the theatre with a twenty-dollar paycheck.
Flesh of the Killer BB and three fellow college students (Max, Claude, and Ray) investigate the Museum of Moral Art, a secret museum built in a freeport. The museum prominently features the works of M.T. Lott, who revitalised the genre of "moral art" before being arrested for cannibalism. Venturing deeper into the museum, they discover that M.T. Lott, believing morality too important to leave to humans, created a robot called the Morality Animal. However, incapable of understanding morality outside of its depiction in art, the robot went berserk and now attempts to trap all life within paintings. After the robot traps them in a painting together, the group distracts the robot with a morality-themed play before attacking and destroying it, allowing their escape.
Blood of the Killer
BB is sent to investigate why a zine distribution established in the nearby River Town stopped sending messages. BB travels to the home of her contact, Clarice, only to find it burnt to the ground. After being redirected for leads to a list of places by XX City serial killer Murderer X, who is later killed by a woman wearing a metal bird mask, BB checks out the various locations in the list, only to discover that most of them have burnt down. BB gives up and tries to return to XX City, but is kidnapped and taken to the self-styled "Concerned Citizen", heir to an abandoned drinky bird factory. BB discovers that the woman in the bird mask is Clarice; Concerned Citizen, believing in a vast conspiracy to pervert recorded history, converted her into a cyborg under his control to kill those who he believes are connected with the conspiracy. He plans to do the same to BB, but the Killer burns down Concerned Citizen's house and kills him, while Clarice, seemingly free of Concerned Citizen's mind control, helps BB escape in the confusion.
Ears of the Killer Annoyed by loud music being played in her apartment building, BB goes to confront the source in their apartment, but finds nothing but fleshlike sludge and a 1960s surf record by "Blue D Hans". After a surreal sequence where the walls of the apartment fall away and the Killer places a bird made of the same sludge down BB's throat, BB awakes to find herself on stage – while unconscious, she has become an up-and-coming star in the new music scene of "Crime Wave". Meanwhile, ZZ gets a job at the beachfront headquarters of cult Positive Way LLC. After being sent into the bowels of the complex to find old stock to sell online, ZZ discovers records by Blue D Hans and then finds the cult's leader dead, seemingly murdered by Blue D Hans. Trying to find answers, BB goes to a retro convention after learning that Blue D Hans' record company's remaining assets are being sold off there, and stumbles upon the Weepster, a Crime Wave artist who murders his scene rivals. The Weepster attempts to kill BB, but the bird that was placed in BB's throat possesses her.
Waking up on the beach with the Weepster's clothes lying abandoned next to her, BB reunites with ZZ, who is selling the Blue D Hans records to a buyer who wants to meet them in person. The buyer turns out to be Blue D Hans himself, who explains his philosophy of the "counterworld", a negative of the regular world, to BB, before forcing her and ZZ to perform a beachfront concert with him. BB destroys the bird inside her, Blue D Hans is drowned by a giant wave, and the Crime Wave splinters into endless subfactions.
Heart of the Killer
BB, working as a mystery shopper, is sent to the Dream Resort, a vast complex seemingly empty of other guests. At the Resort, BB is presented with endless surveys and participates in focus testing where she is asked for her opinions on various bizarre products. Also present in the Resort is the Dial-A-Boy, a toy phone that connects to the attractive young men presented as the Resort's executives, which BB refuses to use. In a bathroom, BB encounters fellow zine author CC, who tells her to meet at the same place the next day to learn the truth behind the Resort. The next day, the bathroom is empty but BB discovers a secret passage behind a mirror, which leads to a surveillance room containing a dossier on government agent "The Spook", as well as instructions on how to escape the Resort, which were actually set up for her to use the Dial-A-Boy.
The Resort's manager, frustrated by BB's refusal to reveal her romantic preferences, has the Spook trap her in a fantasy world named Pumpkin Summer. BB rejects the fantasy's proposed love interest, and back in the real world finds a flyer for an investment meeting, revealing the Dream Resort's real purpose: studying its residents to collect behavioural insights into modern youth fantasies. BB discovers that the Resort's manager is Marcie, formerly famous for a zine she made in the 90s. Marcie reveals that after her second zine was a critical and financial flop, she went into consultancy work. BB and Marcie are swallowed by the Spook, but Marcie stays behind to seek validation and identity from its collected data while BB refuses to and wakes up as the Resort collapses.
Face of the Killer