It’s been a long time since I’ve done anything with this blog, really. I’m sure most of my followers have gone away and a bunch of folks straight up think I abandoned Hugginsverse completely (I haven’t), but I feel it’s important to put some stuff out there.
This isn’t a vent, callout, sob story, or anything like that. I just want to say a few things that are very important to me, and if you enjoy Hugginsverse, they might be important to you, too.
When I was 15, I dabbled in RPG Maker and made a game called ?????. It got a major facelift when I was contacted by potential assistants and this remake was called UNKNOWN. I had no idea it would become what it did.
I’ll be 23 in less than a week, and no longer live in the house I grew up in. When I look at UNKNOWN, and the games that followed in its trail, I simultaneously see the happiest point of my life and the cringy doodle in the middle school sketchbook (but in a loving way!...mostly). I hold nothing but appreciation and love for both the stories I had created and the people I had in my audience.
However, I’d like to take a moment to look back on this series through the eyes of an adult, and point out a few things that are going to change now that I’m a bit older and my life experiences have shifted. There will be Cool New Hugginsverse News, too.
The first thing I want to put in here is an apology. I know, I said this wouldn’t be vent, but this is important. I’ll try to make it quick. There will be fun stuff later on, I promise.
The first big change is that in UNKNOWN, the entirety of Zone 2 is hereby removed from canon entirely. No UNKNOWN-related material (I’ve been questioning remakes for a while) I ever release in the future will contain any part of Zone 2 for any reason. I have more than one reason for this, and it leads into my apology.
The main reason for Zone 2′s removal is that it contains a scene depicting assault that was handled in a very insensitive way. In the interest of keeping my promise of not telling sob stories or doing callouts, I will keep it short and say that Zone 2 was not written by me, and this scene was put into the game without my full consent. (If the full story is really needed, feel free to message me on Discord at The largest bee you've ever seen#9642, as this is where I’m most active.)
However, this does not mean I’m not responsible for the scene being in the version of the game that was released to the public. Beyond all else, UNKNOWN was my own project, and everyone on the team was aware of this. At any moment I could have made the choice to remove this scene from my game. I feel insulted that such a scene used a character of mine that I love so dearly, that my favorite OC I’ve ever made is depicted committing such an action, but I had every power in the world to prevent it. I did not do so because I was worried the assistant involved would drop their support -- even though the game was pretty much complete at this point and their refusal to continue would not have mattered.
I want to apologize to anyone who may have been insulted, offended, or triggered by this scene. There was no excuse for it being left in the game. It should be considered non-canon, and will never appear again.
I also want to apologize for an ableist slur used in FastForward. This was used in an attempt to emphasize a character being unforgivable levels of mean, but looking back, it is now clear that my usage of the word at all was in incredibly poor taste and horrifically irresponsible. Any FastFoward related materials I release in the future will have this line removed entirely.
Ok, that was the most serious part, I swear. Let’s do these in ascending order so we keep getting happier.
The second retcon I’d like to introduce is actually a spoiler for 365, so if you haven’t played it, and intend to do so, please do that before clicking this link. I’d also like to warn anyone who is sensitive to animal harm before reading, although it’s non-descriptive. This one is short because it involves a traumatic event from my own life, and I don’t want to upset myself or anyone who reads this.
Third, I’d like to announce a few characters that are no longer canon in the Hugginsverse universe. These include CHARLOTTE THE OBSERVER, BANDIT THE ELSEN, LOUIS THE ELSEN. These characters are no longer included in the universe because permission to use them has been revoked by the owner. I am a bit sad, as I have seen many of these are popular characters in the fandom, but I would like to respect the original creator’s wishes.
Okay! Time for more fun stuff.
An announcement I’d like to make is that I’m working on another game. It will not be an OFF fangame, as I no longer have interest in building off that world, but it is still included in the Hugginsverse canon and features Seneca and the Puppeteer as protagonists. I intend on divorcing the franchise from OFF from hereon out by instead focusing on Seneca and the world he comes from.
I do not know a release date. Hell, I’ve been making, scrapping, remaking, rescrapping this thing for a few years now, as is made obvious by scrolling even just a little on my blog. (The images and news provided there are, unfortunately, outdated and no longer represent the game.) Do not scroll down my blog. I’ve been informed my Tumblr was taken over by sex-related spam bots in my absence. Please message me on Discord using either the server in the link below or my ID above if you wish to contact me or see what I’m up to. Perhaps posting every now and again will motivate me to create the best product I can. I’ve learned a lot since my last Hugginsverse adventure, both from a game design side and technical side, and I want my growth to show as best as it can.
One more thing... I have a Discord server where I post information about games (uncommon) and the world Seneca originated in (common). If you would like to hang out there and discuss Hugginsverse, as I am no longer in the OFF or spinOFF servers, or simply learn a bit more about Seneca’s species and the world he comes from, this server would be a lovely place to do so. I spend most of my time online nowadays on Discord, so anything sent to me there will be seen quite quickly.
Thank you for bearing with me through this very very long text post, and most of all for enjoying the series I put all my little teenage heart into. All of you are wonderful, and I am blessed to have had the experience of making something people loved and were inspired by. I can only hope, and try my best, so my future projects can achieve the same.
I don’t know how well this will reach since this is a new Tumblr (I lost the old one), but I’m finally streaming again. I’ll be working on animations for Unknown’s sequel as well as maybe goofing off a bit.
Thanks for the info, I definitely will check out One! Also, have you played Unknown? Any thoughts on it?
I’ve played Unknown!
It was… something? Hard to say if I thought it was completely good or bad, but I didn’t come away from it feeling like I’d wasted my time.
It was neat how it focused less on combat. Unfortunately, the villain is a little too unlikable; his actions and motives are explained so little, that he kind of came across as a jerk for no real reason, and sometimes put the story (and player) in a very uncomfortable place. He had a nifty design, though.
Most problems I had with it come from the fact that it’s too short, and most of its lore isn’t there in the actual game. It got a lot more interesting for me after I looked through the creator’s blog, and found out a lot more about the characters, especially learning their motives, feelings, and origins (Clueless became more interesting, too). If the game spent a little more time developing its characters, mood, and setting, it would be improved tremendously.
I definitely liked how many different endings you can get. There’s so many, I’ve never gotten the same one twice! This actually works well with the game being so short, because it makes it easier to replay (or, you could just revert to a file saved right before you choose all of the factors that influence the ending, but that doesn’t take too long either).
I’m definitely interested in what Claude might do with the story in the future. Looking around, it was good at the time it came out, and was definitely quite influential on OFF’s fangame community. Unknown isn’t available to download anymore, but I still have a copy on my computer, and there is a small handful of playthroughs of it that one can watch on Youtube.
