Games allow people to do and become things they never could in real life. A lot of the time this means something extraordinary, like gaining some sort of superhuman power ortraveling to a fantasy world. And other times it’s something mundane or just a bit weird,like turning into furniture.
The key to making such a mundane thing appealing is combining it with other gameplay elements, like adding in a stealth element or making it necessary to change into such ordinary things to complete an objective.
Updated June 18, 2025 by Mark Sammut:Although they occasionally show up as NPCs, anthropomorphic furniture rarely feature as playable characters. Honestly, the concept feels like it has untapped potential. This article has been updated with a new borderline case that allows players to order two furniture-like entities.
This might seem like a bit of a cheat, butPokemontechnically qualifies. Now, players control trainers who give orders to their Pokemon, so an argument could be made that the latter are not really “playable;” however, they are effectively an extension of their master. Over the decades, Game Freak has gotten rather creative when it comes to designs, taking inspiration from all sorts of sources. WhilePokemon based on inanimate objectshave been a thing since Generation 1, Game Freak has mostly resisted the urge to just use furniture. However, “mostly” is the operative word in this situation.
Generation 5 introduced Lampent and Chandelure, which are just plainly a lamp and a chandelier. Like, their designs do not even try to hide the fact that they are just sentient furniture. While not extremely powerful, Chandelure is a decent Ghost/Fire dual-type that could easily slot into most trainers' teams, especially if players are planning to just stick to the single-player campaign.
Except for this evolutionary line,Pokemonalso has Bronzor, which is just a mirror.
Garry’s ModorGModis asandbox that gives players the freedomand the tools to do several things. Using a version of Valve’s source engine,GModhas created a large online community of player-created content and game modes. One of the most well-known game modes is PropHunt. In PropHunt, players are split into two teams, Props and Seekers.
Those on the prop team have 30 seconds to look around the map and disguise themselves as any of the props they come across, including things like tables, chairs, shelves, etc. Those on the seeker team have to find the players on the prop team and kill them using the weapons at their disposal. Seekers lose health if they attack props that aren’t players.
Unfortunately,Propnightwas shut down on June 25, 2025, meaning it is no longer available to play.
Ever wondered what it would be like to combineGMod’s PropHuntwith the multiplayer survival horror gameDead by Daylight? Well, look no further thanPropnight. It combines all the elements of both games in a less gory but pretty creepy multiplayer game. The mechanics of the game are simple and anyone who is a fan of either series is sure to pick it up quickly.
Players look around the map and disguise themselves as any of the props they can find while one player tries to find them. But instead of Props and Seekers, there are Survivors andKillers, and both have special abilitiesthey can use to win the game.
For players who like the idea of games likeGModbut want something a little more cute and family-friendly,Run, Prop, Runis the game for them. It’s a 12-playerprop hunt game that’s also a platformer. Unlike most Prop Hunt games, when the Hunter catches the Props, they also turn them into Hunters.
A match can start with 11 Props vs. 1 Hunter and then end with 1 Prop and 11 Hunters, making the difficulty harder with each player turned. Hunters get to customize their characters and, with every piece of furniture and prop donning googly eyes, it’s a bit more challenging to tell which is another player and which isn’t.
Fortniteisn’t just for people who enjoy battle-royal or survival gameplay, it’s also for people who want to be creative and want to test the limits of what they can do in the game.Fortnitehas a Creative Mode that gives players a private island that they can build on, and can also invite their friends to join their island and play. They can also go to other players in the community islands with public codes.
One of the most popular types of maps inCreative Mode is Prop Hunt, and there are tons of different islands with uniquely themed games for players to choose from.
2Midnight Ghost Hunt
I Ain’t Afraid Of No Furniture Ghost
Hide and Seek isn’t just for the living as the gameMidnight Ghost Huntshows. It’s a multiplayer game where the teams are split up into Ghosts and Hunters. Players battle against one another in 4 on 4 matches on several creepy haunted maps. The goal of the Hunters is the find and exorcise each ghost usinghigh-tech ghost-hunting equipmentwhich includes a Vacuum to suck up their ghostly essence and a Spectral Cannon which can be used to blast them away, completely.
The Ghosts are the ones who have to hide, masking themselves as simple furniture. The Ghosts have several other abilities, including making other objects float and shifting into doppelgangers of one of the Hunters, so they can hide in plain sight. Once the clock turns twelve, things switch up as the Hunters become the hunted and must survive the supercharged onslaught of the Ghosts.
Peekaboois another charmingly cutePropHunt-inspired game that lets you turn into furniture. It follows the same vein as other games of its kind, two teams with one as the Hunters and the other team as the Props. What makesPeekabooa notable game is the vibrant visuals of its maps.
From a futuristic cyber-punk-themed city to a dusty old town in the Wild West, each map feels genuinely alive and like it’s inhabited. There are many maps, and each one comes with the ability tochange the time of dayand create a different atmosphere.
