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gritty horror with an excellent story. I was a huge fan of I live under your house and this one came with more exploration and more characters to explore.
Enjoyed this one less the I live under your house, but the art was much more effective in this than in the former mentioned. For .99 cents I really think it's worthy of a quick play
"I'm surprised I still have tears after all this time. Well. I'll just stand here and cry for a while. Tears are good. I'll calm down and go on."
a severe downgrade from the developer's previous I live under your house., My Monstrous Roommate. illustrates living with an obvious metaphor for mental illness. for a bit of praise, SpoocleMacBoogle really has a talent for constructing an amazing atmosphere across their titles, with the diverse environments present in this particular title utilising simple proximity sound cues, noise or dithering visual filters, and slow walking speed within sparse 3d realms to truly simulate dreamscapes full of dread. there is little reliance on jumpscares across the board, highlighting the strange occurrences during sleep.
that aside, the elephant in the room present when playing their titles is the use of AI renders as illustrations or CGs. as stated in a small tweet thread, Spoocle notes the strange imperfections in "machine art" that are perfect for horror games, and that funds for hiring a creative are understandably limited. most notable however, is that they believe a real artist would not achieve the same quality or effect as the generated images, before waxing poetic about the future of neural networks and how they are supposedly the first to ever create games utilising them, scrambling to mention at least they compose the music.
as a visual artist myself this was quite disappointing. it's true it was the visual aesthetics and creature design which initially drew me to their titles, but Spoocle clearly displays a fantastic skill for crafting an atmosphere, 3d modelling, and map design. i simply wish they would trust someone to match their pace, and can only hope they will consider compensating the artists their neural networks stand upon sometime, or at least post an open call for freelance horror illustrators in future projects.
a severe downgrade from the developer's previous I live under your house., My Monstrous Roommate. illustrates living with an obvious metaphor for mental illness. for a bit of praise, SpoocleMacBoogle really has a talent for constructing an amazing atmosphere across their titles, with the diverse environments present in this particular title utilising simple proximity sound cues, noise or dithering visual filters, and slow walking speed within sparse 3d realms to truly simulate dreamscapes full of dread. there is little reliance on jumpscares across the board, highlighting the strange occurrences during sleep.
that aside, the elephant in the room present when playing their titles is the use of AI renders as illustrations or CGs. as stated in a small tweet thread, Spoocle notes the strange imperfections in "machine art" that are perfect for horror games, and that funds for hiring a creative are understandably limited. most notable however, is that they believe a real artist would not achieve the same quality or effect as the generated images, before waxing poetic about the future of neural networks and how they are supposedly the first to ever create games utilising them, scrambling to mention at least they compose the music.
as a visual artist myself this was quite disappointing. it's true it was the visual aesthetics and creature design which initially drew me to their titles, but Spoocle clearly displays a fantastic skill for crafting an atmosphere, 3d modelling, and map design. i simply wish they would trust someone to match their pace, and can only hope they will consider compensating the artists their neural networks stand upon sometime, or at least post an open call for freelance horror illustrators in future projects.