In Don’t Get Got you try to escape a school full of freaky little guys and worst of all, your friends

How many times can video games riff on that one Dr Who episode with the weeping statues? At least once more. Surgeon Simulator devs Bossa have just announced Don’t Get Got, in which you and up to seven of your so-called friends are trapped in a large school with randomised objectives and safe rooms. Also in the school: a bunch of horrifying little boys in shorts and braces.

It’s out in early access today. Yes, they’ve sprung this one on us like a ghastly Jack-in-the-box. Steady your nerves and watch the trailer.

Going by the video, the little boys only move when you’re not looking at them, or can’t see them. You probably don’t need a PhD in Who to know what kind of play strategy this adds up to: keep that torch topped up with batteries, travel as a pack while looking in different directions, and try not to turn your back on any empty space.

The trouble is that some of the objectives seemingly require you to take your eyes off the environment – operating a music box while staying perfectly still, for example, or using a scanner. The other trouble is that you have a sanity bar – not sure what the effects of running low are, but I doubt they are helpful. The other other trouble is that some of your friends are bastards. I mean, the game encourages them to be bastards. I’m not calling your friends bastards, with the exception of, you know, her. “Use the environment and collaborate with other players until they no longer serve your needs,” the Steam page summarises.

Don’t Get Got began life as a gamejam project, and will be in early access for around a year. The current build includes one map, game mode, character and enemy type. The 1.0 release “will definitely have more content in terms of maps, characters, enemy types, items and so on”. They’re also “intending to use this period to test some radically different ideas, which means there may be experimental features that we try in EA but decide not to ship in the final version.”

While impressively ghoulish in itself, Don’t Get Got does feel a little like yet another claimant to Lethal Company‘s throne that doesn’t have a fraction of that game’s cosmic grotesqueness. The title is also a bit How Do You Do, Fellow Kids, not that I’m in a position to judge.

Still, I’m a fan of Dr Who’s Weeping Angels – it’s one of two episodes of modern Who I’ve ever watched, the other being the one with the library where the shadows eat people. I also quite like Bossa, who’ve been through rough times recently. So I may yet find time for a trip to the schoolhouse.