The Castle of Dr. Hoot

A game very much worth playing. It's another edutainment horror[-lite] game, but the mechanics are very interesting and inspired by FNAF. The minigames can feel slightly repetitive at times, but the game makes up for it with the storytelling and sleuthing that the player is required to do. The visuals are in high definition for the most part rather than pixelated, which makes this game's art style slightly more unique. Combined together with the early 90s CGI-aesthetic and faux-claymation, it's a hoot of a time to play. Some unintentional game-breaking soft locks still exist, but I'm cutting the developer slack as they're patching as many as possible as they become aware of them, and have already issued multiple minor patches a few weeks post-launch. tl;dr fake edutainment game good

Cannot wait to see what's next from this dev.

I'm so upset at how short this game was, I was able to beat it in roughly 2 hours, and I really would've loved to got to see more about the story. Regardless, this was a great game, I love the Clickteam Fusion type of style that this game has, reminds me a lot of Scott Cawthon's older games, and overall this is just a really great bait-and-switch horror game, I especially love the personality that the characters have, victims of Dr. Hoot in a way. Overall, this game is great, and I would love it if it had more endings or more lore to it! <3

Very solid game, that frog can tell a joke!

This game was life changing. I played this on a random wednesday, and boy oh boy, was my day amazed. I would die for this game. This was worth so much more than 5 measly dollars. I'd pay my entire lifes savings for this game. I would literally slap my grandma for the developer of this game. I love this game. This game is phenomenal. I have 5 whole hours on this game already. (And counting, trust me.) I NEED more from these developers. I have beaten the game three times already. PLEASE develop more. I volunteer to be the pioneer of the fandom of this amazing, beautiful, Shakespearian work of art. I LOVE YOU BITWIZARD!!!

Short but sweet edutainment horror game with a lot of charm. As critical/nitpicky as I might get in this, I absolutely recommend the game, I just want to get things pushed out in hopes this game gets ironed out juuuust a bit, or future projects take it into consideration. Not like it needs to be perfect, obviously. Spoiler character'll be named bear5 for convenience. Also, works out of the box for Deck, yippee :) I'll start with some negatives, admitably these are very minor and/or bias. Horror. I feel the game overdoes it with some of the jumpscares, mainly the bear5 hatch. It reminded me of how a lot of early 202X horror series would do their jumpscares with face warping and whatnot, and it seemed very unnecessary considering who bear5 is. That being said, ones like Dr Hoot (except for one linked to story progression lingering on screen for too long), the guards, and general glitchy-ness is much more welcomed imo. Gameplay. I wish there was a pause button, or if there is one, why not have the "Are you a quitter" menu be it? With the "reset the whole day if you die" thing going on, if something comes up, I'm boned. It's not a huge deal like some other reviews make it out to be, but it'd be a quality of life thing. Story. Not going to complain about any of the actual writing, I think it's done very well actually. I just wish there was *more,* or if I haven't found all the secrets (if there's more cheese wheels), I wish it was more accessible. Characters like Gretchen and Hank feel not as important as the others outside of their books, and I really really wish bear5 had more going on. Who is "Player", why does "Hoot" do the things he does (specifically to who he does it to)? Again, maybe I missed something, this could absolutely be my fault. Music: Let the rat maze get something besides TV static. With that being said, guess what's next. Horror. Game paces it pretty well, admitably I wish it was sprinkled in a liiiittle more during the normal game loop, but when it shows up, it's nice. Especially liked it when I couldn't pick mushrooms fast enough, to name one. ;P Gameplay: I'm really glad a game like this didn't over-complicate things with a thousand "click a pixel in this corner of this room for a super secret" that other point and clicks might do. Still plenty to get your usual goofy sfx from, and a nice drawing board that sucks. Just the way I'd want it for an edutainment game lol Edutainment sections are also very in tone for what they teach, and early elementary difficulty, glad some questions try to trick you when you're on your feet as is. Only thing that's a bummer is that some are much easier than others, meaning players trying to get the true ending might just flip flop between two and get bored. Story. Very good hooks whenever something new happens, though admitably I wish there were more stakes from failing. I get sent to detention, and then what? What happens to my character, or the person playing the game? Regardless, the actual story is pretty interesting, I'm just greedy and want more, and I don't wanna say too much here. Music: Hoo boy this stuff is nice. Especially when I was gathering people's things at the end, or approaching Hoot's chambers. Really looking forward to if the soundtrack gets released, iirc it was mentioned to be a possibility in the future on the Itch page. I'll also state it here like I did on one of the update pages, but transparency is king. Dev outright saying known bugs and what's prioritized, because apparently the game didn't launch in the best of states. Glad to have gone through the intended experience, and I'm glad any bugs that might've existed were actively worked on and fixed. I didn't run into anything on my playthrough besides going through the wall early, but that's not a bug. I'm just nosey :P Seriously, this is a really good project. Please keep going, horror or otherwise.

While not the most fine-tuned experience (the most efficient play pattern is just grinding 2 minigames as fast as you can which is a bit boring and the story is a bit lacking in both plot and characters), the game is very charming aesthetically and fun to play through if you want something small that scratches the "this is born of all the mascot and analog horror tropes on youtube" itch. For 5 bucks it's a totally fine and cute experience, I had a fun time and I'm glad I could play it.