Commenting elsewhere regarding my experience with Dee Cooke’s Ghost Hunt, I said that I really enjoyed imagining my young self as a happy kid. That’s something Ghost Hunt accomplished for me. That’s a kind thing for a bit of media to do, isn’t it? Help someone see themselves happy.
Rustjaw
mathbrush
Summary
Rustjaw is a very clever piece, as it is able to operate on multiple levels of meaning. It is the sort of non-graphic horror that would be at home in the books I bought at grade school book fairs. It features monstrous creatures with strong art and mildly humorous descriptions. My friends and I would have greatly enjoyed reading, telling, or hearing tales of such creatures!
Nothing could have prepared you for how they smell, a combination of bile and fast food styrofoam that has sat out in the sun too long. Their form, completely liquid, is constantly pulsing and reforming, leaving steaming acid everywhere it touches. You think you can see chunks of bone and skin swirling inside, which almost wave in motion to you, inviting you to come and join them.
The “fast food styrofoam” is a nice touch, isn’t it? We kids loved this kind of gross-out description. Enjoyable campfire fare to be sure.
At the same time, there is an adult level to Rustjaw’s narrative. The monsters seem to emerge from online and pop-culture phenomena. There is a stated “closeness” metric which calls to mind dating simulation mechanics. The real-world phenomenon of romantic and/or more adult interests in the monstrous is implied, though i never felt that it was being mocked in a derisive way. Here, a “date” involves pursuit by one of four monsters, and there are three outcomes: merge, marry, or rejection. That’s right, you ultimately can choose whether to continue (in death/transformation) with a monster or “dump” them.
Young me would have laughed about this. A lot. Adult me does, too. I appreciate how open things are, meaning-wise. Is this about monsters? Is it a figurative treatment of romance generally? Or romance mechanics in games? Is it just a cool place to put some good art?
For me, it’s a bit of everything. This is a generous game (in four-hour terms) with a good deal of text that led me to many enjoyable thoughts of internet discourse, video game tropes, and, perhaps most rewardingly, the thought of myself and my friends having a good laugh in what is now another century.