There’s something particularly exciting about playing a game from a first-time developer. Not because I’m inclined to give it a pass for being someone’s first project, but because there’s a certain what’s next excitement that comes with it. You get to see a developer establish their voice, figure out what works, and take all of that into whatever they make next.
Allogloom, the debut game from a pair of first time devs, gave me plenty of reason to wonder what comes next. And honestly, I can’t wait to find out.
But first, Allogloom! Welcome to Gruesome Grove, a village where you’ll quickly learn that things are…different. Not necessarily different in the “everyone here knows they’re living in some bizarre timeline” kind of way, either. This is just life as far as everyone is concerned. Their strange customs, unsettling circumstances and generally questionable reality is just normal.
Which makes you, the player, left trying to piece together what’s going on, exactly like our protagonist, Nora. The combination of an intriguing setting and unfolding mystery is what kept me hook through my hours with Allogloom. The more time I spent wandering around Gruesome Grove and meeting its residents, the more I wanted to understand this place and everyone there.
And there’s plenty of people to meet. Most of them you can even talk to.
One of my favorite things about Allogloom is how committed it is to its particular brand of weird. The game manages to make its world feel simultaneously familiar and completely off-kilter, with a cast of characters who treat the bizarre as mundane. It creates a wonderfully darkly funny experience, especially when the game’s cartoony approach to blood and gore takes some of the edge off what might otherwise be genuinely disturbing moments.
If you’re a fan of Fran Bow or Little Misfortune, you’ll probably feel pretty comfortable in Gruesome Grove. Not because Allogloom is trying to recreate either game, but because it shares that same combination of point-and-click adventure gameplay, unsettling subject matter, strange characters, dark humor, and an art style that makes the grotesque feel oddly charming.
Speaking of that art style: I loved it.
Allogloom takes inspiration from the Art Nouveau movement, something I don’t think we see nearly enough of in video games. There’s a distinctive visual identity here, and it does a lot of work in establishing the game’s strange, storybook-like atmosphere. It’s one of those games where the art direction feels like an intentional part of the world rather than simply a way to make everything look pretty.
The music, when it appeared, complemented that atmosphere beautifully.
Unfortunately, I found myself wishing there were more of it.
There were stretches where I was mostly listening to repetitive ambient noise, or simply nothing at all. Silence can absolutely be an effective tool in a game like this, but here I occasionally found myself wishing for a stronger musical presence to accompany the excellent visual direction. When the music did kick in, I noticed it and loved what I heard.
As for puzzles? Sure, some of them ground my gears, but most point and clicks have a point like that at least once. But more importantly, Allogloom never pushed me to the point where I wanted to quit in frustration. There’s also a handy hotkey that lets you check whether you’ve interacted with everything you can in a particular area, which became an incredibly useful little quality-of-life feature. (I make a point of this because I’ve played a few other point and click demos recently that haven’t had this feature.)
If anything, I occasionally had the opposite problem. A few puzzles almost felt too easy. I like getting smacked in the fact with the glorious “OOOOOH THAT’S WHAT YOU DO!” moment, and while Allogloom certainly gave me some opportunities for that, I wouldn’t have minded a few more puzzles that made me sit and contemplate what was happening on my screen for a little longer.
But those rougher moments never overshadowed what I enjoyed most about the game: I wanted to see what happened next.
And that’s probably the best compliment I can give it.
Allogloom feels like the kind of debut that makes you excited about a developer’s future. The fact that this was made by first-time developers didn’t really change my opinion of the game itself. The things that frustrated me were still frustrating, and the things I loved were still things I loved. But knowing this was their first project did make me especially excited to see where they go from here.
Maybe that’s partly because I can’t help but think about my own journey in games, too. There are a lot of people making games right now. There’s also a lot of people not making games anymore because of where the industry is right now. Seeing new developers put something strange, creative, and distinctly theirs into the world is exciting.
Allogloom is a little weird. A little rough around the edges. A little quiet in places where I wanted more.
But it also has personality.
And that’s worth celebrating.
If you’ve got a soft spot for darkly funny point-and-click adventures, unusual art direction, or games that make you wonder why everyone in this town seems to think their deeply unsettling existence is perfectly normal, I’d recommend giving Gruesome Grove a visit.
Allogloom releases on October 13 on Steam.