HAUNTED: Escape the Dollhouse Co-op Beta Sign-Ups Open

There's something deeply wrong about dollhouses. The tiny chairs, the painted smiles, the little rooms that look lived-in when nobody has ever lived there. HAUNTED: Escape the Dollhouse takes that unease and turns it into a co-op puzzle game. Even better, beta sign-ups are now open.

The pitch is simple. One friend is on the outside, poking at a creepy dollhouse. Everyone else is stuck inside it, wandering rooms that are suddenly full size. Nobody gets the whole picture, and that's exactly the point.

One Outside, Everyone Else Trapped

HAUNTED: Escape the Dollhouse is an asymmetrical co-op game for two to four players. Asymmetrical here means the roles aren't the same. One player takes the part of the investigator, studying the dollhouse from above. The rest are trapped in its life-sized rooms, trying to find a way out.

The hook is that clues never sit with the person who needs them. Whatever you're staring at, the answer is probably in someone else's hands. So you talk. A lot. And if your group is anything like mine, that talking will go wrong in all sorts of entertaining ways.

There's a supernatural twist on top of the puzzle-swapping. Players can use the Sight, a paranormal ability that reveals hidden secrets. That's how you work through the game's occult puzzles. Meanwhile, a curse keeps spreading and putting everyone inside the house at risk. So there's a clock ticking, even if the game doesn't spell out exactly how it hits you.

Every Visit Is Different

Here's the part that caught my eye. Rooms, puzzles and supernatural events are all randomized. Each investigation runs about 30 to 40 minutes, and no two should play out the same way.

That's a smart length. It's long enough to build tension, but short enough to squeeze in a run or two after dinner. Randomization also fixes the classic escape room problem. Once you know the solution, the magic is gone. Shuffling the layout and puzzles should keep the dollhouse strange for a while longer.

There's progression too. Runs earn XP and Soul Tokens, which unlock new abilities and sharpen your supernatural senses. So even a disastrous session where everybody gets cursed still counts for something.

Chaos by Design

The game openly points to Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes and We Were Here as touchstones. If you've played either, you know the vibe. One person describes something badly, another misunderstands it, and a simple task falls apart in seconds.

HAUNTED leans right into that. Misread rituals and terrible directions are part of the fun here, not a bug. The beta pitch even promises "a doll-ightful time," which tells you the game doesn't take itself too seriously.

If you liked the sound of the haunted attic escape in Lost in the Roots, this one is worth a look. Interested players can sign up for the beta by hitting the "Request Access" button on the game's page.

Our Take

Communication puzzlers have become a small genre of their own. Keep Talking and We Were Here showed that splitting information between players turns every session into a party story. HAUNTED: Escape the Dollhouse seems to know that well. The outside-versus-inside setup is a neat way to frame it. It's also a clear fit for groups who want something to shout about together, much like the wagon party chaos of Clumsy Claws.

The randomization is the big question. The pitch suggests the developers want replay value, not a one-and-done escape room. It's worth watching whether the shuffled rooms and puzzles actually feel fresh after a handful of runs, or whether patterns start to show. The XP and Soul Token unlocks could help, but they could also tilt things toward grinding. The beta should give a first read on that balance.

For relaxed gamers with a regular co-op crew, this looks like an easy one to try. The sessions are short, the horror seems playful, and the failures sound like half the fun.