Ad Nauseam – The Wrong Side is a choice-heavy psychological horror and thriller game about trauma, identity, love and sickness. It borrows staples from adventure games, visual novels and RPGs: you solve mysteries, form bonds, and blur the line between mind and body.

Steam 250 weekly chart: #38 on the Top 50 Games of the Past Week as a new entry, scored 6.95 from 22 reviews at 100% positive, released 24 October 2026. Chart position via Steam 250.

Key features

Three genres borrowed for one job

Mixing adventure, visual novel and RPG systems is usually a warning sign, because each one wants a different pace. Here the combination has a purpose: the visual novel carries the relationships, the adventure layer carries the mystery, and RPG structure gives the player measurable consequences for choices that would otherwise be pure text. The genres are doing different parts of one story rather than competing.

Body horror aimed at identity rather than gore

The stated subject is trauma, identity and sickness, and the developer says gore is used sparingly but intensely. That restraint is the interesting choice. Horror that leans on constant gore has to keep escalating; horror that spends its budget on a handful of moments can let the rest of the runtime build dread instead, which is the only way a dialogue-heavy game stays frightening.

A 100% rating on a tiny sample, published by one person

Twenty-two reviews at 100% positive is a real signal but a fragile one. What it tells you is that the audience this game found so far is exactly the audience it was built for. Solo self-published horror rarely launches onto a weekly top-50 chart at all, and it did so here without a publisher pushing it.

Where to find it

Ad Nauseam – The Wrong Side is on Steam for $6.59, developed and self-published by throwpup. It is English-only with full audio. Steam flags gore and violence used sparingly, and one instance of artistic medical nudity in the form of a Vitruvian man figure.

Frequently asked questions

Who made Ad Nauseam – The Wrong Side?

throwpup, working solo as both developer and publisher.

How much does Ad Nauseam – The Wrong Side cost?

It is listed on Steam at 6.59 dollars.

Is Ad Nauseam – The Wrong Side a visual novel?

Partly. The developer describes it as combining adventure, visual novel and RPG elements rather than being a pure visual novel, and Steam lists it under Adventure, Indie and RPG.

Is Ad Nauseam – The Wrong Side in English?

Yes, and only English. Steam lists English with full audio support and no other languages.

How graphic is Ad Nauseam – The Wrong Side?

The developer states that gore and violence are used sparingly but intensely, and that the game contains one instance of artistic medical nudity. It is built around psychological horror rather than sustained graphic content.