Homonculus

A short conceptual game about being normal.

About

Something vague and obtuse made for the 2025 Queer Horror Jam; a properly conceptual piece.

Though it retains my signature mechanical flair and a significant degree of polish, we ultimately set out to capture an imposed feeling of obligation, confusion, and ultimately frustration. I am quite happy with how it turned out.

The Story

Back in march, my sonic saviour had found himself in a gap between projects, and reached out to myself and another experienced developer about seeing what we could do for a longer term jam. We settled on the initially suggested 2 month Queer Horror Jam, which was relevant to all involved.

Without a theme, we riffed on an initial concept of an asexual dating simulator. A robot trying to figure out what all these weird, needy, and sensitive people want and how to navigate an encounter without hurting them or giving them the wrong idea. (In addition to being queer, multiple playtesters pointed out that the game is also very autism-coded)

Of course, I needed to hit something with a stick, and ended up steering things towards King’s Field. As a mechanical context but largely as an excuse to scratch that nagging itch in my head that animation for that type of game could be done so much better so much more easily than many moderns games in that space if implemented with a little finesse. I set off on that with many other aspects vague and had a solid prototype with player controller and combat implemented at the end of the fist month.

The second month was spent on the other half: Dialogue. Initially we though of a more turn-based system, for which you would collect upgrades that you would have to brand onto your brain, taking up limit space. This worked great thematically and all but then, inspiration! What if, instead of having to do the resident evil inventory minigame to fit little blocks of repression into your cranium, you had to manually construct your response inreal time out of these blocks.

Of course, this turned into a whole thing. The primary focus of the game. Also a significant challenge to implement mechanically, but I got it sorted.

Though our man on audio and writing had ample time, I was doing this in addition to full time work and normal life, which meant putting off a lot of things that I can finally get around to again now that the game is done. Ended up scrambling just a little bit, doing some of my best work at the last minute, as is typical, getting poses and animations in for all of the individual conversations and adding an actual ending to the game and everything.

My Creative Approach

Appropriately, after publishing the game and submitting it the jam, our first comment was from someone who just didn’t connect with the thing mechanically. I am very pleased to be in a place artistically that, though I can approach it with love, feedback like that seems irrelevant and a little silly.

I don’t make games for people to play. I make games because I have to.

The concept was in my brain and I need to make it so that it doesn’t stay there and clog the thing up. Of course, I find the process of manifesting a project extremely fulfilling and just plain fun. I also like the thought that others might enjoy or otherwise appreciate what I make. But that is so much less important to me than the exercise of a creative movement.

_{Roles: programming, design, coordination, technical art, animation, modelling}

_{Tools: Godot, Blender}

Ancestry:

1. ⮣ Homonculus
2. ⮣ ET-Skate
3. ⮣ Golfo (Jam Version)
4. ⮣ Slug Rider
5. ⮣ Surreal Taxi
6. ▪ Skatboard Rat