Title: HOMEunculus
Artist: Tina Kalinger
Medium: Digital Game
“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
HOMEunculus invites the user to influence the environment by manipulating the bodies that create it – an odd, often absurd reflection of the player/avatar experience. In this prototype, faces cover the walls and floors, while the blank mannequins create obstacles with their body positions. The player manipulates the level using a doll to find solutions to physical puzzles.
When the player moves the doll to clear a path or create a staircase, all of the mannequins in the level move, creating new puzzles and challenges that are never the same for each playthrough. This mannequin movement not only acts as the primary puzzle solving mechanic, but also contributes heavily to the uneasy atmosphere of HOMEunculus. The unnatural movement and positions of the mannequins get under the skin, without jump scares, gore, or atmospheric scares beyond soft background music. HOMEunculus is an experiment in gameplay and body horror, one we hope to further explore with additional levels and body mechanics.
