Gloomy Juncture

About This Game

You’re not special. You’re not a hero. In the still of the night a single gunshot shatters the silence, setting the wheels of fate in motion…

Embark on this haunting tale where obsession takes center stage, and step into the shoes of a mundane person standing on the edge of a peculiar world.

ABOUT GLOOMY JUNCTURE
Gloomy Juncture is a neo-noir psychological thriller and a character-driven adventure, focusing on character development, featuring heavily stylized art within a painstakingly hand-drawn 3D world, fully-voiced characters, dynamically narrated events, and a point & click gameplay core. With no death condition, meticulously explore your surroundings and solve puzzles to unlock new areas. Hidden objects throughout the game provide achievements and alternate solutions.

Gloomy Juncture is inspired by neo-noir films, psychological dramas, weird B-movies, the works of Hitchcock, Lynch, and Aronofsky, and European horror, blending a cinematic narrative experience with hardcore gameplay reminiscent of ’90s adventures. Exploring themes of obsession, unease, and hopelessness.

TRADITIONAL HAND DRAWN ON PAPER
Every game object begins on paper through a painstaking process where each element is drawn by hand considering forms and distortions for 3D projection. The drawings are then digitized and modeled with a low-poly style but featuring that rough yet detailed texturing, creating a juxtaposition of “gritty and pretty” that will suck you in.

N64 ERA GRAPHICS WITH A TWIST
Gloomy Juncture’s environment and level design channel a ’90s vibe due to the influences from early 3D and N64 era graphics. It employs simple geometric shapes but enhances them with a custom-developed shader and post-processing techniques that breathe life into the paper details.

ATMOSPHERE ENHANCED BY MODERN TECHNOLOGY
Powered by a custom deferred rendering, the game supports 3D audio and advanced effects like volumetric lighting and fog, and lots of real-time dynamic lights, neons, and shadows. This accentuates the eerie and gloomy setting while introducing hauntingly beautiful glowing light.

FULLY-VOICED AND MOODY DYNAMIC NARRATION
Professionally recorded in a studio, every NPC is fully-voiced, and the protagonist narration has a range of emotions dynamically responding to interactions, events, including hints and the occasional sarcastic observation, enriching the immersive experience.

CHALLENGING POINT & CLICK IN THE FIRST PERSON
Gloomy Juncture reimagines the classic adventure style, bringing the exploration to the first-person, enriched with core loop mechanics from classic point & click games. You’ll explore the scenery and characters to solve hardcore puzzles.

FOCUS ON ATMOSPHERIC STORYTELLING
A cinematic psychological thriller through a first-person adventure, set in a mysterious world of hopelessness and unease. The narrative explores themes of obsession and isolation, with plenty of atmospheric storytelling elements in the form of symbols and motifs for you to digest. Expect some weird humor and sarcasm.

NEO-NOIR CHARACTER STUDY
The main character is a mundane person, a janitor dealing with anxiety, obsession, and a deteriorating mental state in a decaying and morally bankrupt urban setting during the ’90s. The trigger of a gunshot sets the wheels of fate in motion, and you’ll step into the shoes of this mundane person caught in the aftermath of this pivotal moment.

Brace yourself for a psychological tale focused on a character study, with a deep dive on the issues of a troubled mind, slowly unveiling hopes, dreams, and desires. The cinematic narrative also embraces the gritty delivery of classical horror films blended with the weird charm of B-movies. The boundaries of sanity will blur as you get closer to the end.

Are you ready to embark on this gloomy tale?

GAME AND CINEMATIC INFLUENCES
Gloomy Juncture is a deeply personal project with a lot of myself exposed in an exaggerated and pulp dressing. With an atmosphere that embodies a dark expression of fatalism and hopelessness, the overall setting is inspired by neo-noir films and psychological dramas such as Hitchcock’s Vertigo, Oldboy, and Taxi Driver. For the visuals and pacing of the story, I’ve drawn a lot from movies like Suspiria, Blue Velvet, and Requiem for a Dream.

On the gameplay side, inspiration comes from classics like Grim Fandango, Broken Sword, and
Hotel Dusk: Room 215. The Max Payne games are also a huge influence on the overall atmosphere.

Prepare to step into an unsettling world with fragments of a feverish dream driven by obsession.

PULL LEVERS, PUSH BUTTONS, AND SOLVE ENVIRONMENTAL ENIGMAS
Follow an intricate narrative as you explore a hand-tailored scenery and meet intriguing fully-voiced characters. Along the way you’ll trigger dynamic events, experience feverish dreams, and find environmental enigmas that require keen observation skills and logical thinking to decipher riddles and discern solutions. You’ll also find some action-packed puzzles that’ll require brains and brawn.

Creatively use items to distract and confuse NPCs, or discover alternative solutions to puzzles with hidden items scattered throughout the world. The player character will also react to your actions in real-time; this ‘noirish’ dynamic narration enriches the experience and provides minimal diegetic tips—your only help for the ride.

Expect challenging puzzles seamlessly blending exploration, problem-solving, and immersive storytelling.