Hair-Raising Harry's Backlot Retreat (EARLY ACCESS)

IMPORTANT NOTICE!

The game in its current form is known to have... issues. I think the core idea is pretty good, but it's very hard to understand what it is you're doing.

There are plans to rework the game pretty heavily in the future, so keep your eyes peeled! The renovations at the backlot could start any day now...

CAUTION:

The following party game, in its current form, optionally includes loud noises and jumpscares. You can either replace the jumpscares with silly-but-sudden voice clips mixed with leaning in through the doorways, or remove them outright. Please don't go against the wishes of participants!

If a player doesn't want to use jumpscares, either don't use them, or request the player to sit out.

Thank you for playing nice!

This will be reworked in a future release to default to the current "silly" mode jumpscares, to start out with, at which point I'll await further feedback on if it's worth putting the original ones back in.

NOTE:

As of now, this game can only be played on a gamepad. Keyboard/Mouse support for single player play will likely be added later. Unfortunately, multiplayer will almost certainly always require a gamepad.

Thanks for understanding!

...also, want to play the game online with friends? I highly recommend Parsec! https://parsec.app

And, need support for gamepads other than Xbox gamepads? Try DS4Windows! https://github.com/Ryochan7/DS4Windows

THE BACKSTORY:

After filming completes on the latest film in the HAIR-RAISING HARRY horror franchise, everybody leaves, confident that this is the one, the movie that will save the series.

To celebrate, the movie's director Jim J. Immerjimmest, is hosting a party! And that party has a horror attraction that you've been invited to, using the iconic HAIR-RAISING HARRY animatronics... which you will be controlling!

THE ANIMATRONICS:

Role call!

CHESTER THE PRAWN!

This funky fella who definitely doesn't look like a chess pawn and is very definitely only a prawn is known for having a scarier-looking side that he can pull out when he really wants to. Usually he's too nervous to use it, but if he gets in your office... well, who knows?

BUCKO THE HONSE!

Somebody made a typo while filing a trademark for this one (looking at you, PHIL!), and ever since the name has legally been required to stick.

As for Bucko, she's still upset about it. Wanted to punch stuff ever since. Wouldn't wanna be hit by a punch from her if I were you...

(For legal reasons, this is in universe. Happy Frog Games LLC has made no attempt to file a trademark for either the name "Bucko the Honse" or "Bucko the Horse".)

NECKY THE CRALPACA!

Part Crab, part Alpaca, 100% silly! Necky runs a soda bar, and actually wasn't part of the filming of the movie in of itself!

...no, the animatronics definitely aren't all sentient robots that we've taken away the free will of just for the sake of a party game, what are you talking about?

He very definitely doesn't get mad when people remind him of his fate by watching him on the cameras. That's just a silly rumor.

And last, but certainly not least...

HARRY THE VAMPOSSUM!

This vampiric possum is the star character of the HAIR-RAISING HARRY'S movie series! Almost looks cute, until he's flying at lightning speeds in the shadows, then divebombs you from the ceiling to kill you very dead.

He knows to hide near the cameras, since it's harder to tell what's going on if he does so. Rumor is that bright lights, or even just the sounds of the movement of cameras, can stop him from advancing, but nobody is sure how to best take advantage of that...

These are the four stars of the show you will be playing the game as... but wouldn't it be a bit boring if that was all you could do?

THE NIGHT GUARD ROBOT:

Everybody shares control of the night guard robot, using the same remote controls as the animatronics do. However, you need to switch from "animatronic" mode into "office" mode to do so. Or, more accurately, the other way around is needed to control the animatronics?

Yeah, so, by default this is actually what you'll be doing. Open and close doors, turn on and off lights, use cameras to watch what's happening, all that stuff. The trick to winning the game is to use the night guard robot to your advantage to stop your competition from advancing into the office while you barge in and take all the glory!

Be careful though! You're working on a limited, slowly recharging stamina supply, so don't overdo it, save your strength for when it'll do you the most you can! Or you can just burn all your energy constantly and take advantage of the increased recharge rate when low on stamina, but, y'know, still.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this highly experimental game if you give it a go!

POSSIBLE FEATURES FOR THE FUTURE!

• SUB-CLASSES! Have more variety in how each character plays.
• MORE CLASSES! Increase the pool of random animatronics that can be chosen from 4 to, some number higher than 4!
• MORE MODES! The current game mode is actually planned to be a sort of "quick play" mode for the finished game. I want to add scoring systems, modes with proper tutorials, you name it.
• SINGLE PLAYER CONTENT! The game, as is, only really support bot-matches for single player play. Suffice to say, the plan is for there to be more. I'm not sure what yet, maybe a challenge mode. The menu does already mention one.
• MOBILE PORT! A mobile port likely would have to drop the multiplayer entirely, unfortunately, which is pretty pointless until there's more single player content...
• MINIGAMES AND TUTORIALS! The current tutorialization... well, it's actually just straight up not finished. Early access! So I think adding minigames that share controls but use different, simpler mechanics, and also having a mode which similarly introduces controls but which uses the actual normal mechanics for the most part, would be very, very good improvements. If you're new to games where you watch creepy mascots on cameras, maybe wait for an update.
• ...AMBITION? Yeah, so, this game is really experimental but if people end up liking it a lot, there's a decent chance I may focus a bit on making a broadly more fleshed out version. Who knows?

Well, that's all for now, have fun!

Notice for streamers, let's players, etc.:

You're allowed to stream or record the game just fine, I don't mind! Feel free to monetize video footage of the game too. I don't have any intentions of sending any takedown notices or anything on footage of the game, no need to worry about it! All I ask is that you include a link back to the original game if the context of the footage of the game makes it possible, or find some other way to credit that the footage used is from this game. Okay, and also, don't claim that the game is your own.

Heck, while I don't expect it to happen, if you wanna include footage of the game in the background of a movie or something for some reason, go nuts, with the same expectation that you find some way to credit what game the footage is from and not much more. I don't know why you'd want to do that but I think it'd be funny to allow it so go ahead.

(This is generally how I feel about it for my games in general actually, I just keep forgetting to specify it for them.)