Caution: Review has spoilers.
RPG Maker has been a popular platform for indie horror games for north of 20 years at this point, a large open canvas for developers who grew up with titles like Silent Hill and Resident Evil. The body of work that has been produced on the engine has run the gamut from the deeply philosophical to blatantly exploitative- but it remains a constant in the world of indie game development. A testament to how important RPG Maker is as a tool for freeware is how the years go by and new game developers continue to choose at a platform by which to realize their ambitions.
It is a platform heavily constrained by limitations of the software, with developer ingenuity crucial to helping distinguish a title from a hundredfold similar. KADOKAWA has continually released updates to the software, notably 2015's RPG Maker MV and 2020's RPG Maker MZ, and thusly production value has risen greatly. Yet the desire remains to see people who are doing something new, and something with substance rather than retreading the footsteps of vapid horror games like Ao Oni.
RPG Maker horror has developed to a point where it has resulted in games considered seminal to indie gaming at large. Kikiyama's Yume Nikki heavily popularized a subgenre of RPG Maker titles in which unsettling pastiches of horror imagery meld with open-ended exploration gameplay. OMOCAT's OMORI is a recent brushfire hit, captivating a new generation of youths toward RPG Maker horror games with an emphasis on metanarrative and the human condition.
rpgmaker.net's Misao awards (aptly named after another seminal horror game by Sen) have long been a barometer for the trends and developments within the scene. They are user-run, maintained and elected awards across various categories for games released during the calendar year. 2022's Misaos are full of curiosities, as usual, but the star of this year was by Korean developer racheldrawsthis's Cold Front. It took home five nominations, and won the RMN Game of the Year award.
Cold Front is a short narrative of two childhood friends, Winnie and Augustine, finding themselves stranded in an intense blizzard in the middle of July. The story straddles between a coming-of-age melodrama and a supernatural horror thriller, with expository flashbacks doing most of the heavy lifting for the narrative. Augustine's pubescent inner turmoil is given form through a hideous monster that stalks and chases the two through the snowy landscape.
In this sense, the game is more of a visual novel than what we normally picture an RPG Maker horror title. It has a strong visual signature, with beautifuly rendered 2.5D pixel art. Yet the game is still an exercise of "tell, don't show" due to its short runtime, heavy exposition and lack of locale; with 2/3rds of its short runtime being spent on a snowy road, and the other 1/3rd being spent in a small hallway.
There are short "quick time event" sequences that can send you into a game over state, but the game liberally encourages you to save, so these are just incidental roadblocks. Cold Front just wants you to experience the story of these two boys, and it does not stress any degree of freedom or interactability.
Winnie and Augustine's relationship is the central focus of the narrative, and their exploration of unresolved issues represents the conflict and eventual resolution of the game's horror elements. Indeed, as an explicit "horror" game, I don't think people would find this game particularly frightening. Clumsy chase sequence aside, much of the horror is more subdued- couched in short psychotic breakdowns and hallucinations. This sort of psychological horror is well-tread ground in RPG Maker and indie horror at large, and its done to some degree of competence here, but it was not eliciting any explicit scares for me. The unsettling aspect of this game instead is supposed to lay within its rumination on Augustine's true feelings towards his friend.
I think it is pretty obvious these character are gay, though it is never explicitly stated. The game is rife with subtext that encourages such an analysis. Augustine blushes, flustered at Winnie's overt shows of emotion and closeness. There are signs of homoromanticism throughout every interaction the two share, notably in the game's "true ending." The monster is synthesized from the two stuffed animals the characters had as children: a stuffed elk and stuffed bear. It is a physical manifestation of the intense conflict Augustine feels toward his shared history with his friend- one in which the two were inseperable to the point it is described as "eerie." To me, it read as Augustine's inability to come to term with his romantic feelings towards his friend. The jealousy, self-loathing, and inability to be honest. It felt like such a poignant metaphor for the realities of young people who just repressed these feelings and consequently ruined deeply personal friendships.
Winnie and Augustine's conflict is explained as just a story of two boys who lacked communication, and even though they both cared about one another, this dishonesty snowballed into something far more toxic. But it is clear these two loved (and love) eachother. The specific character of this love is ultimately unimportant, but regardless, the content does not change if assigned a homoromantic meaning. The mores of toxic masculinity have long kept us from having honest conversations with one another; and our world is genuinely worse off for it. This is the real horror espoused in Cold Front, and the implication is frightening, because it is real.
Cold Front's message is one worth exploring, but it is unfortunately held back from a lack of character development and a rushed ending sequence. It is a linear storyline (with one major "bad ending") which I respect, but also feel is significantly lacking in deeper character development. The pacing is breakneck, and as such, many elements central to the breakdown in the protagonist's relationship are just vaguely gestured at and left unexplored.
Still, I found the presentation to be memorable enough,, and its content thought provoking enough to warrant healthy discussion. This game won the GOTY Misao with just 9 votes, but it represents more progressive thinking in a niche hobby space and this is always welcome. The game is overall a charming experience by a solo developer, and I am happy it got recognition from the Misaos.
RPG Maker has been a popular platform for indie horror games for north of 20 years at this point, a large open canvas for developers who grew up with titles like Silent Hill and Resident Evil. The body of work that has been produced on the engine has run the gamut from the deeply philosophical to blatantly exploitative- but it remains a constant in the world of indie game development. A testament to how important RPG Maker is as a tool for freeware is how the years go by and new game developers continue to choose at a platform by which to realize their ambitions.
It is a platform heavily constrained by limitations of the software, with developer ingenuity crucial to helping distinguish a title from a hundredfold similar. KADOKAWA has continually released updates to the software, notably 2015's RPG Maker MV and 2020's RPG Maker MZ, and thusly production value has risen greatly. Yet the desire remains to see people who are doing something new, and something with substance rather than retreading the footsteps of vapid horror games like Ao Oni.
RPG Maker horror has developed to a point where it has resulted in games considered seminal to indie gaming at large. Kikiyama's Yume Nikki heavily popularized a subgenre of RPG Maker titles in which unsettling pastiches of horror imagery meld with open-ended exploration gameplay. OMOCAT's OMORI is a recent brushfire hit, captivating a new generation of youths toward RPG Maker horror games with an emphasis on metanarrative and the human condition.
rpgmaker.net's Misao awards (aptly named after another seminal horror game by Sen) have long been a barometer for the trends and developments within the scene. They are user-run, maintained and elected awards across various categories for games released during the calendar year. 2022's Misaos are full of curiosities, as usual, but the star of this year was by Korean developer racheldrawsthis's Cold Front. It took home five nominations, and won the RMN Game of the Year award.
Cold Front is a short narrative of two childhood friends, Winnie and Augustine, finding themselves stranded in an intense blizzard in the middle of July. The story straddles between a coming-of-age melodrama and a supernatural horror thriller, with expository flashbacks doing most of the heavy lifting for the narrative. Augustine's pubescent inner turmoil is given form through a hideous monster that stalks and chases the two through the snowy landscape.
In this sense, the game is more of a visual novel than what we normally picture an RPG Maker horror title. It has a strong visual signature, with beautifuly rendered 2.5D pixel art. Yet the game is still an exercise of "tell, don't show" due to its short runtime, heavy exposition and lack of locale; with 2/3rds of its short runtime being spent on a snowy road, and the other 1/3rd being spent in a small hallway.
There are short "quick time event" sequences that can send you into a game over state, but the game liberally encourages you to save, so these are just incidental roadblocks. Cold Front just wants you to experience the story of these two boys, and it does not stress any degree of freedom or interactability.
Winnie and Augustine's relationship is the central focus of the narrative, and their exploration of unresolved issues represents the conflict and eventual resolution of the game's horror elements. Indeed, as an explicit "horror" game, I don't think people would find this game particularly frightening. Clumsy chase sequence aside, much of the horror is more subdued- couched in short psychotic breakdowns and hallucinations. This sort of psychological horror is well-tread ground in RPG Maker and indie horror at large, and its done to some degree of competence here, but it was not eliciting any explicit scares for me. The unsettling aspect of this game instead is supposed to lay within its rumination on Augustine's true feelings towards his friend.
I think it is pretty obvious these character are gay, though it is never explicitly stated. The game is rife with subtext that encourages such an analysis. Augustine blushes, flustered at Winnie's overt shows of emotion and closeness. There are signs of homoromanticism throughout every interaction the two share, notably in the game's "true ending." The monster is synthesized from the two stuffed animals the characters had as children: a stuffed elk and stuffed bear. It is a physical manifestation of the intense conflict Augustine feels toward his shared history with his friend- one in which the two were inseperable to the point it is described as "eerie." To me, it read as Augustine's inability to come to term with his romantic feelings towards his friend. The jealousy, self-loathing, and inability to be honest. It felt like such a poignant metaphor for the realities of young people who just repressed these feelings and consequently ruined deeply personal friendships.
Winnie and Augustine's conflict is explained as just a story of two boys who lacked communication, and even though they both cared about one another, this dishonesty snowballed into something far more toxic. But it is clear these two loved (and love) eachother. The specific character of this love is ultimately unimportant, but regardless, the content does not change if assigned a homoromantic meaning. The mores of toxic masculinity have long kept us from having honest conversations with one another; and our world is genuinely worse off for it. This is the real horror espoused in Cold Front, and the implication is frightening, because it is real.
Cold Front's message is one worth exploring, but it is unfortunately held back from a lack of character development and a rushed ending sequence. It is a linear storyline (with one major "bad ending") which I respect, but also feel is significantly lacking in deeper character development. The pacing is breakneck, and as such, many elements central to the breakdown in the protagonist's relationship are just vaguely gestured at and left unexplored.
Still, I found the presentation to be memorable enough,, and its content thought provoking enough to warrant healthy discussion. This game won the GOTY Misao with just 9 votes, but it represents more progressive thinking in a niche hobby space and this is always welcome. The game is overall a charming experience by a solo developer, and I am happy it got recognition from the Misaos.