It’s been five years since I released my first horror game, ‘Bad Faith’ in 2021.
Fast-forward to now, as I finish Carnivore!, I have made 15 games, 9 of them are horror with another hopefully coming out soon, and also my larger ongoing projects in the space.
I would like to continue developing these projects in the foreseeable future, and have opened up a Patreon to help fund those ventures, including to help pay for talent such as voices or other artists and tools for development.
If you sign up for the Main tier on Patreon, you will get:
Post-mortems of Every game finished.
This will include concept art, deleted content, and more information about the development of each game.
Bi-Weekly Devlogs
Posts that illustrate some of the things I’ve been working on in my current projects.
Including Exclusive Concept Art, Sketches, and Deleted Content.
Early releases of Demos / Free Games
You will get a DRM-Free version of the game available to download on Patreon before release on itch.io or Steam.
Any additional Art / Comics that are made.
This includes both final and sketch layers of each piece of Artwork.
Even more Wallpapers exclusive just for the Patreon, compatible with your Mobile and Computer Devices!
There is also an additional tier of support that gives:
Alpha & Test builds of upcoming games.
Extremely early previews of games that are to come, including rough tests that you can try yourself.
Steam Keys for any games that are for sale.
For games that will be released on Steam, a one-month subscription to the $10 tier fulfills receiving Steam Keys for the most current game.
And, of course, there is a Tip Jar tier of $1 that gives you access to the public announcements on Patreon before anywhere else.
I deeply appreciate all the support you’ve given me through these five years and hope to see you all again with more and more projects to come.
I am currently outlining a Game Jam-oriented project that would benefit from a talented VA!
The game will have visual (and some script based) content encroaching on topics such as gambling, drug use, human body decay, and other types of body horror.
Basic Character Description:
Character is intended to be a game show host for a game show that puts its contestants in mortal danger.
Occasionally Nervous, Attempting to Cover Up Something.
Other details on what type of Voice Acting is considered:
The Voice is intended to be Masculine in tone.
Tone will on occasion change depending on circumstances.
Is comfortable with making loud gasps, yelps, screams and grunts.
A gut-wrenching long scream is expected in the script.
Scope and Deadline
Scope is of a small and short minimalist game that is part of a game jam.
Game is currently in an outline phase with some concepts and sketches. Because of that, it is abiding by the game jam rules of only producing production-ready content between the dates of July 10th and the 19th.
This would mean that whoever is chosen to do the voice will receive the script as late as July 12th, and will need to give deliverables by the 17th at the latest (however sooner would be better).
Direction: The Game Show Host calls out to a co-host to show a prize that the contestant won. Pause for a second, and then excitingly announce the prize the contestant won!
Line 2:
Please… I’m reasonable… …
do this for me and you’ll get… …
EVERYTHING YOU WANT!
(Direction: The Game Show Host is pleading… desperately to the contestant to get them to continue playing. Once it gets to the last 3 words, the Game Show Hosts tone changes to a showman. The final 3 words is announced similar to how the people scream WHEEL… OF… FORTUNE!!!!)
This will be considered the final major update to this version of Carnivore!, but bug fixes and tweaks will still be ongoing.
This version comes with a load of fixes, as well as new content, including a Behind-the-Scenes section and a CURSED REWARD for anyone who has uncovered all the Achievements in the game.
You can view the details of the update at the bottom of this post.
That being said, I am putting a lot of thought into the future of Carnivore! and where to go from here. Hopefully I’ll have a decision and make an announcement sometime in the near future about it. The unexpected attention that Carnivore! has gotten over the single month it’s been out has been incredible and has made me look inward on what I can do with it.
All I can say now is thank you for your time, and I hope you stick around for new projects or announcements.
If you want to be the first to be notified of new stuff I’m working on, I tend to always post on my newsletter first. You get an exclusive wallpaper as a gift, and sometimes given preview of games to play before they are released into the public.
As Newsletter subscribers last year were able to experience a very early build of Carnivore!, for instance!
I’m so excited to announce that CARNIVORE!, a SHEEP HORROR ADVENTURE is out May 28th, 2026, and will be available to play at https://cattrigger.itch.io
I hope you’re having a good winter, it’s getting cold here in Chicago, so I hope everyone else is bundling up!
After some consideration, I’m changing how Carnivore! is being released due to how dicey Holidays can be. I’ve opted to set Carnivore!‘s release in January, as opposed to December… but will export a very small preview of Carnivore! in the form of a demo for NEWSLETTER SUBSCRIBERS!
The demo hopes to showcase a small 5-10 minute chapter of the game, and what to expect for the rest of the piece. It will also allow me to test other people’s hardware on it, as Carnivore! does use new technologies that I have never used before, and I’m not fully knowledgeable about its limitations.
What is Carnivore! ?
For people new to the newsletter or the game itself, Carnivore! is a Slasher Horror Comedy that intermixes Point ‘n’ Click Adventure with Visual Novel elements.
In the game you play a nervous Sheep trying to survive a frantic restaurant environment, where the staff doubles as ingredients.
Can you survive the onslaught to save your own SHEEPSKIN?
Almost Done..
If you haven’t read my previous newsletter about production of the piece, the game is a very different experience from most of my other games, especially if you know me from Date Time. It also uses an Animation Technology that has some experimental elements to it, and was a difficult thing to figure out in my workflow.
However, now that most of the tech issues are (hope to GOD) dealt with, the project should be in a place where production and coding is all that’s left… with 80% of assets done, and a good helping of the code as well.
Forgive me on kiting this project throughout the months. As I’ve stated before, when I work on smaller projects like this, I try to take risks that I am unsure will pay off.
There had been times in this project that I hit a wall, and became unsure if I could push through it. I’m glad I made the decision to work on Carnivore! in this way, as it has been an incredible education to me, but certainly it has come with its own consequences.
I am quite proud of what has been done with the game, and hope to show you in a preview in December.
It’s been a while since I’ve written a newsletter, sorry for the wait, I have so much to talk about, but haven’t had the time.
Every year I develop a short horror game and this is the most ambitious short project yet.
Here’s what I’ve been working on…
Carnivore! is a fully-animated narrative adventure game, where you play a CUTE SHEEP in a world that finds you delicious. You work at a restaurant, where the staff doubles as ingredients for entrées.
As the staff shrinks can you be one of its survivors?
Carnivore! is a Slasher Horror Comedy featuring cute cartoon animals facing a world of betrayal, selfishness, and hunger.
The game is so different from other games I’ve worked on. There is almost NO DIALOGUE in the game and a story that relies much more on environmental storytelling, animation and the occasional written prose.
Characters communicate with each other through pantomimes, symbols and scribbles. There are parts of the game where your quick-thinking and reaction time assist in your survival against multiple MURDERERS in the game.
The Sheep, our player character, is also a fully-animated… and voice-acted character, who you control throughout the game. Sam Grace (you may remember from ‘VESSELS‘) voices the Sheep!
In some ways, it’s a very CatTrigger-like Game, and in other ways, it’s nothing I’ve ever done before.
On top of that, Carnivore! is developed using an experimental type of animation-implementation in Unity.
Carnivore! is a departure from the typical way I do animation in games. For one, Carnivore! uses fully-rigged character models that were animated in ToonBoom Harmony.
TB is possibly the most prestigious 2D animation tool in the film & television industry, being that it was the program used for shows like Bob’s Burgers, Rick & Morty, and Adventure Time.
What it’s NOT well known for is videogames. While some game developers have used Toon Boom or similar animation tools for sprite animation… ToonBoom has a special beta plugin that automatically converts rigged character models to Unity Animation Clips.
This allows for optimized dynamic characters, taking up less space and eating up less resources than sprite animation… all the while maintaining fluid movement.
Traditionally, these types of animations are either done within Unity itself, or with more ‘game-oriented’ animation apps like Spine.
But TB is much more robust of an animation tool than any other, as it tries its best to be an all-in-1 tool. This includes being able to draw and produce assets within the app, a robust deformation / rigging system… and a customizable rendering system for a variety of different formats.
It’s also a tool I am comfortable with. While I do have experience in applications like Spine and also Unity’s own internal animation system… TB is a familiar program as I’ve used it so much for a lot of commercial work and some personal projects.
Challenges, Delays… etc.
However, TB isn’t without its problems. It is an enormously complex and meticulous tool. While apps like Spine have a single use-case, TB is for everything, with so many customizable options, features and pratfalls.
The truth, as I am experiencing, is that TB as a tool for games, is NOT as mature, as TB as a tool for Film & Television.
I actually had to be given a special beta of the plugin in order for it to be compatible with the newest versions of Unity by TB’s support themselves.
While the plugin works, it is buggy and inconsistent a lot of times.
Things like transparency, and certain animations are incompatible with the plugin, forcing me to try to solve these problems with my own weird workarounds.
These technical hurdles are why production had slowed for this game, and why I am delaying its release for Post-Halloween.
What Now?
There’s a variety of reasons I work on small projects every year, even if I am working on larger projects such as ‘Date Time’.
Some of it is just mental health related, I prevent burnout by doing new things, and these types of projects are new.
But also, small projects allow me to take risks that may not pay off, but because production is so much smaller than a game like ‘Date Time’, I can take those risks without as much worry.
Carnivore! is, by its nature, the most extreme example of that yet. I entered the project with a determination to do something vastly different… and it had led me down a road of problems and more problems… both technical and creative. It’s a challenge I am still dedicated to finishing, but it’s also one that I am learning hard lessons from.
For one, in future projects, ToonBoom Harmony may very well play a part in its game development… but a project completely reliant on it? Probably not.
(These cluster of nodes represents the Sheep’s rigged model. Professional Animators will notice that this is terribly simplistic for a rig.)
I’ve also found that in terms of game development, it is… by far, just easier to implement sprite animation (which is prevalent in most of my other games), to the brutal and buggy rigged character implementation that Toonboom offers.
Rigged Animation Implementation is also a stylistic choice. There is no promise that using ToonBoom will make things “look better” at all times.
‘Date Time’ would certainly not benefit from ToonBoom due to how its styled. Many other games may not either. It’s really all based on the necessity of the aesthetic, and just trying to make a small project with this program.
My primary mistake, was confusing my familiarity with the program based on my experience as a professional commercial animator… with my ability to implement it as a game developer. The bridge itself isn’t all there yet… and I am also not experienced enough to do it faster.
Also.. Carnivore! is too many new things at once.
Each year, my short games would have one or two things that I wanted to explore in them. For Melissa, it was sprite animation. For Storm the Swan, it was implementing a point ‘n’ click interaction system.
Carnivore! is attempting so many new things, a complete 180 from anything I’ve done before. So much of it is new to me, and it sometimes feels like I’m starting all over in game development.
Had I taken one or two of these things off the menu, this would’ve been a project I could’ve finished on time. But as it stands, what I am hoping for this project, has led to bottlenecks in ways that made it impossible.
I am readjusting my release date of this game, at least before Christmas… but hopefully before the end of November.
I want this to be a game that is fun to play, and is as captivating as a CatTrigger Game can be while doing something vastly different.
This has been an incredible learning experience, and I hope to write about it once the game is out. Please stick close to my Bluesky, Mastodon or Blog posts for more information about the project and others.
What about Date Time & CatTrigger Horror Collection?
‘Date Time’ and ‘CatTrigger Horror Collection’ will resume development in full force in December. As I’ve said before, these small projects help prevent burnout from larger projects, and I’m already so excited to return to these projects and tell you more about the cool things I have in store for you on them.
Including…the inclusion of one very special man in ‘Date Time.’
Thank you again for sticking with me
I deeply appreciate the comments and messages sent to me on a weekly basis, I am still exploring myself as a game developer, and deeply appreciate the feedback I get from people in that regard. Please check out my Bluesky, Mastodon or my blog for more updates, especially since the newsletter is so periodic.
