Slender Rising

Slender Rising
App Store icon
Developer	Michael Hegemann
Publisher	Michael Hegemann
Engine	Unreal Engine
Platform	iOS
Release	November 16, 2012
Genre	Survival horror
Mode	Single-player

Slender Rising is a 2012 horror game. It is based on the Slender Man, a well-known creepypasta character. Influenced by the Slender: The Eight Pages (2012), it was developed and published by independent developer Michael Hegemann, using the Unreal Engine. It was released on November 15, 2012, for iOS devices.

The player is tasked with collecting notes across various maps whilst trying to avoid the Slender Man. Slender Rising received mixed reviews, with praise directed towards its atmosphere, graphics and sound design. A sequel, Slender Rising 2, was released in 2014.

Slender Rising is a single-player horror game played from a first-person perspective.¹ In it the player are hunted by the Slender Man, who will kill them with his tendrils if the player looks at him too long. The player's vision automatically moves towards nearby Slender Man, requiring them to "swipe and claw at [the] screen to tear free". This becomes more difficult each time he catches them.²³

Slender Rising features several customizable options, including difficulty levels, filters that obscure or change the player's perspective and four different maps.¹² The game also features two game modes. In "A Chance To Escape", the player is tasked with collecting seven pages. In "The Endless Stare", they must collect as many pages as they can and survive as long as possible. The player is alerted by sound cues when they are in a page's vicinity.¹

Slender Rising was created by indie developer Michael Hegemann in Unreal Engine.¹ It is based on the creepypasta of the Slender Man. It came out at a time when Slender Man games were ubiquitous following the release of the PC game, Slender: The Eight Pages (2012).⁴ Hegemann himself admitted to being inspired by The Eight Pages.⁵ It was published for iOS on November 16, 2012, and was released on the App Store.⁶

Slender Rising received mixed reviews. David Craddock of TouchArcade and Paul Devlin of Pocket Gamer considered Slender Rising the best mobile game based on Slender Man.¹² Craddock suggested that it was the best Slender Man game; he believed that the variety offered by Slender Rising modes kept it "fresh" and appreciated the use of sound design to build tension.² Keith Langston of Screen Rant said it was "one of the scariest mobile games ever".⁸

Devlin and Slide to Play's Chris Reed were more ambivalent: while he praised the atmosphere, graphics and sound design, Devlin felt that Slender Rising lacked enough originality to distinguish it from other Slender Man games in order to scare players familiar with the genre.² Reed similarly praised the graphics and atmosphere, but considered the actual gameplay boring and unengaging.⁷ Lifewire criticized the lack of storyline.⁹

By January 2014, Slender Rising had received over seven million downloads.⁵

On January 16, 2014, Hegemann released Slender Rising 2 on the App Store.⁵¹⁰ The sequel has two game modes and four maps, two of which are from the first game. In one game mode, the player uses visual and sound cues to locate and save lost souls; in the other, the player must collect mysterious notes — they are pursued by Slender Man in both modes.¹¹¹² James Paterson of TouchArcade wrote that it was a "worthy sequel" despite offering little new underlying gameplay.¹³