Tending Grave — Trông Mộ (Demo)

What is Tending Grave — Trông Mộ?

Tending Grave — Trông Mộ is a free HTML5 narrative adventure demo from vgamclub, built for phones in portrait and playable on desktop with a mouse. An, 23 and unemployed, takes a cemetery caretaker job at Vĩnh An after an advertisement shows a lawn, a fish pond, and swans. The first shift falls on the first day of the seventh lunar month, when the gates of the underworld open, and the trial period is 30 days.

The demo covers Chapter 1, called The Gates Open, and runs from the night of 30/6 to Thất Tịch in roughly 45–75 minutes. That week is not a static backdrop: each day brings a new development and time keeps moving. The tone is cozy-creepy, with ghosts, a village cemetery, and an atmospheric look.

An's routine splits into daylight and dark. Day work includes cleaning gravestones, lighting incense, and tending lamps at the hut. Night work means patrolling with a flashlight. Around the cemetery are an elderly sticky-rice seller near the incense burner and a soaked little boy at the banyan tree who asks strange questions; neither has a shadow. The rule sheet in the hut appears to gain a new red-ink line each week.

How to play

Play proceeds day by day through the first chapter. Each day adds a development, and time always moves forward. An's caretaker work is split between daytime tasks and a nighttime flashlight patrol. The demo's week starts on the night of 30/6 and ends at Thất Tịch, with a 30-day trial period as the larger frame.

An's phone is a major side activity. Mother's messages can be reread as a timeline, and the phone also allows browsing the web, listening to music, and playing games. Spending time there is easy; forgetting duties is also easy. The journal records every action and choice, so it acts as a running account of the week.

The demo ends with a weekend choice: stay at the cemetery or return to the city. Before that point, the first chapter can be finished in about 45–75 minutes. The full version is planned around 30 days of Ghost Month, six chapters, and multiple endings, but this playable build is the single week of Chapter 1.

Controls

Controls are built for a phone held in portrait. Tap to walk; double-tap an object to use it or do work; hold a finger down to keep walking continuously. The game is also playable on a computer with a mouse.

The control scheme is intentionally narrow: one tap starts movement, a double tap operates an object, and a held finger keeps An moving. That makes the demo easy to understand on a phone screen in portrait. Desktop players can use a mouse instead, so the same HTML5 build can be opened on a computer.

The input language fits a point-and-click adventure: tap or hold to move through the cemetery, then double-tap a gravestone, lamp, or other object to perform the relevant chore. The portrait phone layout is the main design target; mouse support is the desktop alternative.

Tips for your first run

Treat the week as a schedule, not a sandbox. Time passes on its own, and the phone offers several ways to lose track of it: mother's messages, web browsing, music, and games. The journal records actions and choices, so it is the best place to review the week's shape.

Use headphones if possible. The audio design uses insect silence as a warning that something is about to happen, and that cue can be missed on phone speakers.

• Read the hut's rule sheet; it appears to gain a red-ink line each week.
• Watch the two regulars: the sticky-rice seller at the incense burner and the soaked boy at the banyan tree. Neither casts a shadow.
• Balance daytime chores with nighttime patrols; the flashlight patrol is separate from grave cleaning, incense, and hut lamps.
• Remember the weekend choice: staying or returning to the city is the demo's final decision.
• Finish the first chapter in one or two sittings; the whole demo is about 45–75 minutes.

Content and replayability

The demo is one week, from the night of 30/6 to Thất Tịch, inside a larger 30-day probation. Each day brings a development, time always advances, and the journal keeps a record of every action and choice. The weekend question, whether to stay or return to the city, gives the chapter a clear closing decision.

The content has explicit horror and death themes, including scares and a drowned child character. The mood is cozy-creepy rather than action-led, with ghosts, a village cemetery, and a rule sheet that seems to grow a red line each week. Players who avoid child-death themes or scares should take the warning seriously.

Replay value in the demo rests on choices recorded in the journal and the final stay-or-go decision. The full version is planned to cover 30 days of Ghost Month, six chapters, and multiple endings. The demo itself is Chapter 1 and about 45–75 minutes, so it is a short, finite slice rather than the complete month.

Presentation and performance

The demo runs as an HTML5 build in the browser. It is designed for a phone in portrait, with desktop mouse play as an alternative. The game saves automatically to the browser; clearing the site's data will erase the save.

Sound is part of the storytelling. Insects fall silent before something happens, and headphones are recommended so that cue is not lost. Character and setting images were generated with FLUX via fal.ai and then edited and assembled by hand; sound effects and music used ElevenLabs Sound Effects and Stable Audio via fal.ai, with manual finishing.

The build is in development and the demo covers one chapter. The visual direction is atmospheric and the text is Vietnamese-only for now. Because the browser save is tied to site data, progress should be treated as local to that browser.

Who should play it

This demo suits players who want a narrative adventure with a slow cemetery routine, ghost-story details, and a short commitment. The central figure is An, a 23-year-old taking a 30-day trial at Vĩnh An cemetery; the first chapter runs about 45–75 minutes and is played in portrait on a phone or with a mouse on desktop.

It is a good fit for readers of Vietnamese who enjoy point-and-click structure, atmospheric horror, and cozy-creepy tension. The phone becomes a characterful distraction through mother's messages, web browsing, music, and games, while the journal tracks actions and choices.

It is not for players who want to avoid scares, death themes, or a drowned child character. The demo is also Vietnamese-only, so anyone who needs another language should wait. Those who want the full 30-day Ghost Month story with six chapters and multiple endings will find only Chapter 1 here.