Cat Hat Charlie in: Fungus Island
A downloadable Game
An experiment in form and expression of color. In this Rail Adventure, you play as Charlie, a tired boy who is cursed to wake up on the beach at the bottom of Fungus Island every morning, and cannot move south. Your ultimate goal is to collect Mushroom Pills to treat your dad's Mushroom Sickness. Can you find all three?
Controls
WAD/Left Stick- move forward/left/right
E key/Y button - interact
Q key/B Button - Drop current item
Space/A button - Jump
Credits:
Liz Gravis - Creative direction, tech, audio, neurosurgery
Bill Dang - Programming
Emi Chavez-Armas - 2D animation, various other 2D art
Rebecca "Wes" P - Character designs, 2D art, 3D art
Kia K - Scenario, puzzle design
Brian Renadette - Dialogue writing
Asset Used:
Yarn Spinner, also I built this atop a fork of Lady Stardust
Download
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
**Review contains Spoilers**
This game left an impression on me. The concept alone is super interesting, having this linear movement but having exploration and progression be non-linear. Having this cast of characters coupled with a trading quest, concept of time/progression, and an almost melancholy undertone with the “Dad is almost cured” bit gave me very positive Majora’s Mask vibes. It evoked a feeling of comfort.
As for the character designs, really pleasing to engage with. Veila and Barney especially had stand out designs. Their individual dialog and personalities were very clear, I very much enjoyed Laurence’s tangent on time, they were really making me question the universe haha. All the little flavor text too, like with the fruit tree, was just really great to read.
Remy’s painting visually reminded me a lot of the Sonic 3D Blast intro cutscene, its pixelated presentation was oddly comforting. The lightbulb moment that clicked when I realized it was a puzzle hint was the coolest thing for me, really great diegetic design.
The music was superb. I thought it was just going to be the drum loop the entire time but then you collect a pill and it just starts to build into layers. It really enhanced the anticipation and progression.
Overall this was solid, really well executed. I hope either this or the same idea is expanded upon more in the future, I would love to see more of this especially from your team. If you ever sell Veila or Barney merch hit me up because I’ll be first in line!
omg thanks!! I'm glad it really resonated with you, that means a lot! Honestly I just wanted to stick together the cool artwork I was getting from the team into something that expressed my game design philosophy on a really minimal level, with the stuff like the loop that changes progressively with your actions and the loose quest structure. I'm planning on making a zette release later this year, and the concepts and themes are definitely coming back!!
I’ll be looking forward to that zette release!!!