VESSELS - A NEW MICRO HORROR GAME BY CATTRIGGER

Last Weekend, I published a Micro Horror Game called VESSELS, for the O2A2 Game Jam.

VESSELS is the 3^rd game I’ve contributed to the O2A2 game jam. The O2A2 rules are strict in their requirements, but the general rule is that you have only one of each “asset” available to use in the game. One Character, One Environment, One Soundtrack, One Sound Effect. And also, 1,000 words to work with. The Game Jam is also incredibly short, at 10 days from start of the project to finished.

This is a deceptively challenging game jam, forcing game developers to do the creative practice of “killing your babies”(or darlings if you’d like to be less graphic), the act of sacrificing loved concepts for the practical and effective. Determining what to add, what to “kill” and what is the most effective for each project.

For game developers’ especially this practice is quite valuable, because games generally take longer than any other art forms to create (since a lot of it IS a combination of those other art forms) and gamedevs have a pretty bad habit of producing “feature creep”.

This is also the first project I have done working with a real voice talent. While other projects have had my friends step onto their webcams and produce screams, groans and moans… I reached out to the incredibly talented SAMGRACE to help me on this project.

The PROTO-MELISSA?

While the last few games I’ve worked on have had a storied connection to my larger game, “Date Time” and its predecessor “Melissa”… VESSELS is (for the most part) unrelated to that canon.

But… that doesn’t mean there is no relation between Date Time and VESSELS.

One of the earliest ideas I had for the Spooktober 2022 game jam was what would eventually become VESSELS. It was, in fact, one of the first ideas I had that directed me towards a more ‘character in the computer’ direction.

So you could say, VESSELS was a “Proto-Melissa”, even if it didn’t get off the ground past its concept phase, until now!

A Few Behind-the-Scenes Stuff. (WARNING: SPOILERS)

An extremely early sketch of 'The Colleague' when the concept wasn't a rescue operation.  ;

Funny enough, I kind of consider now that THIS to be the missing person mentioned at the beginning of the game.

Originally I wanted the Colleague's head to 'crack open' revealing a disturbing monster 'hatching'.

However, that concept would've violated the rules set by O2A2, thus I made the decision to have the infection ooze through the eyes.

Thanks for all the support throughout the years!

It’s been a few years since I started my journey as a game developer. While I’ve done games in the distant past, I didn’t start taking the role seriously until I released my first ever horror game, Bad Faith. The support of so many people who have followed me throughout my journey continues to be encouraging as I work on more projects, especially my big one, Date Time.

If you haven’t already, please check out Date Time’s new demo on Steam, which features two people you can ‘date’ and an expansive new area of exploration.

Thank you again, everyone!