At the start of the game's development, Black Tabby Games did not think that their previous game, Scarlet Hollow, was financially successful enough to support the studio on its own through a projected five-year development timeline, leading them to pursue a second game with fewer assets and a shorter development time. Tony Howard-Arias and Abby Howard, the only two members of the company, were inspired by a game jam entry named "Claim Your FREE BitBuddy™ Today!", which had impressed Howard-Arias for how much emotional storytelling was put into a small game. This led to them discussing a concept for a horror story confined to a few locations with a single character on screen at a time.