Now and again a game comes along that, for one reason or another, goes viral. In case you weren’t aware, that game of the moment right now stars Winnie the Pooh’s chum Piglet in a Resident Evil-esque adventure, and its director has been sharing some interesting tidbits about the game’s development.
After its similarities with Resident Evil and Silent Hill were discovered, Piglet’s Big Game has become, to put it mildly, an unlikely hit on social media. Featuring our heroic swine in an adventure to overcome his fears, the game bears plenty of resemblance to the aforementioned horror stalwarts with its fixed cameras and sound design, and as it turns out, those similarities aren’t accidental.
Pascal Stradella, former studio director of the game’s developer Doki Denki, shared several documents on Twitter outlining the team’s approach to the game. The game is a horror comedy aimed at children. The goal is not to frighten them but to make them feel uneasy, to give them just the right amount of chills so they don’t feel entirely at ease”, he explains.
Piglet’s Big Game Studio Director here! (Doki Denki)Our real intentions for the game:”The game is a horror comedy aimed at children. The goal is not to frighten them but to make them feel uneasy, to give them just the right amount of chills so they don’t feel entirely at ease” pic.twitter.com/big6Ian3NCNovember 13, 2024
Piglet’s Big Game was developed to be a “kind of cartoon Resident Evil dealt with in a comic way. Children would be scared, not through scary images, but more subtly by using unsettling sounds to create tension. This, in turn, would be balanced with “moments of relaxation and genuine laughter”.
Instead of a health bar, Piglet’s Big Game features a hidden ‘state’ bar, moving from a ‘Normal’ state to a ‘Worried’ and finally a ‘Panic’ state as Piglet gets scared in-game. This, in turn, requires players to reach a ‘life fountain’ or ‘restoration checkpoint’ to restore Piglet to a Normal state again, often forcing players to continue through several rooms to reach it.
It’s been pretty fascinating to see such a deep concept behind what was up until very recently a largely forgotten children’s game. Indeed, some people have become so enamored with the game’s recent surge in popularity that copies of the game have sold for hundreds online over the past week.
If Piglet’s Big Game isn’t scary enough for you, why not check out our list of the best horror games?