Gloomy Juncture
A neo-noir psychological thriller with a point & click core. Set in the 90s, the story unfolds in a decaying and morally bankrupt urban setting. Step into the shoes of a mundane janitor on the verge of a breakdown and find yourself entangled in the aftermath of a pivotal gunshot.
Adventure
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Overview
Summary
A neo-noir psychological thriller with a point & click core. Set in the 90s, the story unfolds in a decaying and morally bankrupt urban setting. Step into the shoes of a mundane janitor on the verge of a breakdown and find yourself entangled in the aftermath of a pivotal gunshot.
Description
About This Game
ABOUT ME
Hey, Steam! I'm Filipe, and I quit my job during the pandemic to pursue my childhood dream. Started the development with some freelancing gigs by the side, but since last year, I've been 100% dedicated to Gloomy Juncture, living off my life savings. For better or worse, every single "thing" in Gloomy Juncture is done by me.
RECOGNITION
Gloomy Juncture has already received multiple industry honors, nominations and awards including BITSUMMIT Visual Excellence Award, Tencent GWB Bronze Award, Game of the Year 2024 (Spotlight Awards), and Reveal of the Year 2024 (Spotlight Awards).
Selected by the SWERY as one of his Top 5 Favorite games out of over 100 at BitSummit Drift 2024.
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About the Game
You're not special. You're not a hero. A single gunshot echoes, triggering the wheels of fate.
Step into the shoes of a mundane janitor on the edge of a peculiar world, and embark on a haunting tale where obsession takes center stage.
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, 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 ART
Every game object begins on paper through a painstaking process, considering forms and distortions for 3D projection. The drawings are then digitized and modeled in low-poly style with detailed texturing, this creates a juxtaposition of 'gritty and pretty' that will suck you in.
N64 ERA GRAPHICS WITH A TWIST
Gloomy Juncture channels '90s vibes with simple geometric shapes, enhanced by custom-developed shaders 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 volumetric lighting and fog, neons, real-time lights, dynamic shadows, and 3D audio. This accentuates the eerie, gloomy setting while introducing hauntingly beautiful glowing effects.
FULLY-VOICED AND MOODY DYNAMIC NARRATION
Professionally recorded, every NPC is fully-voiced. The protagonist's narration dynamically responds to interactions and events, offering hints and occasional sarcastic observations to enrich the immersive experience.
UNFORGIVING ADVENTURE IN FIRST PERSON
Reimagining classic adventure style, Gloomy Juncture brings exploration to first-person view, enriched with core mechanics from point & click games. Explore the scenery and characters to solve hardcore puzzles.
FOCUS ON ATMOSPHERIC STORYTELLING
A cinematic psychological thriller set in a world of hopelessness and unease. The narrative explores themes of obsession and isolation, with atmospheric storytelling elements in the form of symbols and motifs. Expect weird humor and sarcasm.
NEO-NOIR CHARACTER STUDY
Set in the 90s, in a gritty and decaying urban setting, a single gunshot shatters the silence. You're no hero, just a mundane janitor battling anxiety and obsession. Tonight, a final task before clocking out spirals into a pulp mystery, pushing your sanity to its limits. As you navigate this morally bankrupt world, your deteriorating mental state becomes your greatest enemy, in this peculiar tale about obsession, as your fate collides with the aftermath of that fateful gunshot.
Brace yourself for a psychological odyssey focused on a character study, with a deep dive into the troubled mind of an ordinary person, slowly unveiling hopes, dreams, and desires. This cinematic narrative blends raw intensity of classic horror films with the weird charm of B-movies. As you approach the end, the boundaries of sanity will blur.
Are you ready to embark on this gloomy tale?
GAME AND CINEMATIC INFLUENCES
Gloomy Juncture was born from a blend of personal experiences and love for psychological thrillers with a desire to explore complex human themes. As a '90s kid from a challenging background, I’ve always been drawn to gritty, dystopian settings and flawed characters.
This is a deeply personal project, with a lot of myself exposed in an exaggerated and pulp dressing and 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, Park's Oldboy and Scorsese's Taxi Driver. For the visuals and pacing of the story, I've drawn a lot from movies like Argento's Suspiria, Lynch's Blue Velvet and Aronofsky's Requiem for a Dream.
The setting may sound nihilistic but, at its core, Gloomy Juncture leans into common issues and I'm trying to explore themes of mental health, obsession, violence, guilt and human struggles.
For gameplay, I want to recreate the experience of getting lost in a classic graphic adventure yearning to see "what's next". Games like Grim Fandango and Broken Sword were key inspirations for the core mechanics, while titles such as Tomb Raider (1996) and Hotel Dusk: Room 215 influenced the puzzle-solving. The gritty, noir atmosphere, on the other hand, is inspired from games like Max Payne and The Wolf Among Us.
Setting the game in the '90s felt natural, aligning both with the classic adventure gameplay I'm evoking and the visual style inspired by early 3D and N64-era. By hand-drawing the world on paper, Gloomy Juncture creates a distinctive aesthetic that's both nostalgic and fresh, resulting in a unique visual experience.
Prepare to step into an unsettling world with fragments of a feverish dream driven by obsession.
PULL LEVERS, PUSH BUTTONS, AND SOLVE ENVIRONMENTAL ENIGMAS
The core gameplay revolves around gathering items, interacting with the environment, and solving increasingly complex puzzles that evolve in scale and complexity as the narrative progresses.
Gloomy Juncture features a variety of unique puzzle types:
Traditional up-close logic challenges
Large-scale environmental puzzles requiring careful observation
Dynamic events and feverish dream sequences
Action-packed puzzles demanding both brains and brawn
'Boss' puzzle encounters with real-time pattern recognition
There's no repetition in puzzle design; each one is unique, keeping you engaged and challenged throughout your journey. Creatively use items to distract and confuse NPCs, or uncover 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 journey.
Expect challenging puzzles seamlessly blending exploration, problem-solving and immersive storytelling.
