Before October is over, you owe it to yourself to visit Mayor Bones Annual Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival
Every year in early October, Adam Robinson-Yu (creator of A Short Hike) runs an incredibly charming free MMO called the Mayor Bones Presents: The Annual Ghost Town Pumpkin Festival - before I continue, you should go get it. Now.
Over 40,000 pumpkins have been placed this year!! I think the first year had like 150 lmao
The premise is simple; you carve a pumpkin using a pretty great 3D tool:
Then you design what you want your ghost to look like with very 'Mii editor' vibes
And then you explore the festival itself, finding a spot to put your pumpkin down so others can see it.
Year one was just a small area around a house where you could place your pumpkins on some tables and mingle a bit.
Since year one however, Adam and team have added an unreasonable amount of things to this free game:
- A whole downtown area to explore (and place more pumpkins)
- A haunted hayride to ride with friends
- A hedge maze to get lost in (and place pumpkins in)
- A climbing tower (which you can place pumpkins at the top of if you make it)
- The ability to fly (provided you find a certain item)
- A pedestal at the starting area that randomly highlights pumpkins throughout the servers
- Support for hundreds of players simultaneously (thanks to a tiktok influx last year)
- A 'guess my pumpkin' minigame to play with others
- An escape room style haunted house that's practically a miniature version of Myst (with plenty of places to put your pumpkins within)
- A 'badge' system that lets you award another pumpkin once every 24 hours
- A movie theater that screens public domain (in Canada anyway) silent films...and maybe some more secrets if you're willing to find them (and yes, places to put your pumpkin)
- A goddamn █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ !! Like, a fully functional █ █ █ █ █ █ !
and even more if you care to look for it! (Plus there are pins you get for completing a bunch of the various things above that you can then put on your ghost)
The detail people put into some of these pumpkins is astounding tbh
There's even a prevalence of bug yuri on display!
The servers support several hundred people at once AND there are multiple 'universes' so if you get to the festival late (aka like, now) there are still spots to put your pumpkins.
The game is free on Itch.io (unless you pay the $2 donation fee and unlock hats for your ghost which you absolutely should do.) Servers usually run from October 1st until about a week or so after Halloween. 2025 has been an incredible year for the festival, get in there while you can!