Sock It to Me: ‘Hello Puppets!’ Brings Horror + Hijinks to the Rift Platform
It’s been years since hackneyed children’s show Mortimer’s Handeemen was canceled, and its cast-off puppets have come to life with a vengeance. Your only hope lies in the hands of the somewhat-less-evil sock puppet Scout. Work with her to escape this freakshow in the horror-comedy adventure Hello Puppets!—now available on the Rift Platform.
The latest title from Otherworld Interactive, Hello Puppets! builds off of the success of mobile VR horror hit Sisters. “The original concept for the game was a horror anthology, sort of like a VR version of Tales from the Crypt, and the puppets were just going to be one episode,” explains Director Robyn Tong Gray. “But it became clear that the puppets needed their own game—there was just too much we could do with them!”
Following a year of conceptual groundwork, the game spent about another year in active development, including initial prototyping. “Originally the game was a lot sillier and was going to incorporate more of a Tim Burton-esque horror vibe,” says Gray. “The player was actually entering the TV station as a would-be social media intern on their way to an interview with Mortimer. As development moved along and we started getting feedback, we settled on a more traditional horror look and feel, though we still retained a good amount of humor (particularly with Scout and her relationship with the player).”
Scout forms the game’s focal point—and a unique design challenge: What happens when you replace one of the player’s hands with an in-game persona? “I’m probably biased as the writer, but I love talking to Scout using my head, nodding and shaking and watching how she deals with your answers,” notes Co-Creative Director & Writer Andrew Allen. “At one point, she asks you to put her out of misery and kill her, but if you nod, she immediately backtracks and angrily demands to know what kind of person says, ‘Yes,’ to that. I love that stuff.”
Although the story is fairly linear, Hello Puppets! gives the player a sense of agency when it comes to the relationship at its core. Whether you choose to be friendly or cold, the narrative unfolds in a way that makes sense and feels satisfying. “Fundamentally, it’s a story about the player and Scout, and how their relationship changes both of them,” Allen says. “It’s a classic tale of uneasy allies who gradually grow to trust each other.”
Straddling the line between genres, Hello Puppets! required its art team to strike the right chord between the bright colors of a children’s TV show with the grit and grime of horror. “The idea from the beginning was a relatively clean, painted art style: textures that weren’t overly noisy with surface detail but still had a painted feel,” explains Art Director & Environment Artist Leslie Wenglein. “We found a nice balance by using fairly saturated colors but putting in blood and dirt where it made sense for the story, like on Scout’s shirt and face. It feels gross but purposeful and still has that fun feeling of puppets without taking away from the fact that it is, at its core, a horror game.”
The game’s music and sound design evolved in lockstep with the game itself from the early conceptual days, helping to form a cohesive identity along with the art style. “A lot of the non-diegetic ambience and music throughout the experience was influenced by the physical environment in-game,” notes Audio Director & Composer Philip Eberhart. “A great example of this is how the Meat Locker uses different metallic sound effects to create an ambience that feels cold, claustrophobic, and overall unwelcoming. This technique and artistic crossover is used throughout the game to help guide the experience. Really, Puppets was a playground for me to manipulate the comfort of the player, and I can’t think of a better medium to do this than in VR.”
Prepare for the jump scares and check out Hello Puppets! on the Rift Platform today.
