The Castle of Dr. Hoot

My first thoughts on opening thee game was "It looks like something Scott Cawthon made" (I somehow didn't realize the game was made in Click Team). Then I got asked my name and thought long and hard. I thought the name "PoopyButt" and as "Poop" was entered I was taken to a parody of the Mario Party DS anti piracy screen (Mario Party DS did not have a anti piracy for anybody who didn't know. It was just a meme)

it's like reader rabbit if reader rabbit wanted to actively murder you. the graphics are adorable and i hope the game dev does more in the future! it's a cute little game

Dr. Hoot killed my kids

I kinda bought this on a whim because I thought the trailer with the Castlevania-esque music went really hard lol. Went in mostly blind, just knowing it was a horror game based on educational games like the point and click games I played in the early 2000s as a kid. Ended up liking the game a lot. Didn't overstay it's welcome and had some unpredictable things happening that keep you on your toes. Those never really felt unfair and the game saves after every day so not a lot of progress is lost if something happens. I liked the character designs and the design of the castle a lot, reminding me of old cg shows and games. Later part of the game did get a little glitchy/clunky as someone else pointed it out, with sequence breaks and softlocks potentially happening. For me exiting out of the game and redoing the section in a different order fixed it but I agree some things weren't really communicated well at that section, hopefully this gets patched a bit to get it in line with the rest of the game. Also couldn't help but feel I missed some of the lore stuff, I did find some secret stuff in the computer lab but I think there might be more to uncover. Looking forward to more from this dev.

Biggest waste of time in my life, could have spent 2.1 hours gooning to fortnite skins...

i want to emphasize how much i love the artstyle and vibe of this game, but the gameplay is incredibly frustrating, maybe i just have a low attention span but it's extremely annoying that you have to redo the entire day if you mess up one thing, or even if the game decides to throw a random event at you that crashes your game for a jumpscare

Chances are that if this game looks interesting to you then you're probably going to enjoy it. It's definitely not the deepest or most innovative take on the sort of indie horror nostalgia type of thing but the vibes are still immaculate. Honestly its just the little things like the surreal ui and the renders mixed with liminal ambiance. Tabbing out and getting a bizarre game over. Being able to draw in the bat girls room. And of course the secret lore that was only a bit disappointedly short and vague. I don't know what it is really. But I would recommend it. Especially for five dollars.

Now that the initial couple of patches has released, it's ok to fully recommend this one. While still a bit buggy, there's nothing game-breaking or soft-locking as far as I could tell. Taking inspiration from early 2000s mascot edu-tainment titles, 'The Castle of Dr. Hoot' is a brisk, enjoyable adventure against a mascot gone rogue. There's nothing too innovative in its execution, yet I'd argue the brevity and commitment to its pastiche are where the game shines. The horror is a little gimmicky, as if it's included because of mascot horror's elevation of titles that take nostalgic aesthetics and attempts to find some malicious underpinning, but still the two hour runtime doesn't allow any of these issues to overstay their welcome. I like the ending quite a bit, and if any of the art is appealing to you, I'd give it a recommendation.