Factsheet

Developer:
Young Horses
Based in Chicago, Illinois

Release date:
November 1st, 2010

Platforms:
PC / Mac

Website:
https://younghorses.itch.io/octodad

Regular Price:

FREE

Description

Octodad is a third person adventure game about destruction, deception, and fatherhood. The player controls Octodad, a dapper octopus masquerading as a human, as he goes about a day of his life. His existence is a constant struggle, as he must master mundane tasks with his unwieldy boneless tentacles while simultaneously keeping his cephalopodan nature a secret from his human family. The player controls Octodad like a marionette, dragging his arms and legs around while his body flops along. The player’s goals are often simple household chores made difficult and interesting by the flailing, tenuous control they have over Octodad’s body. Being an octopus also has its strengths. Octodad can slip through tight spaces, grab objects with his suckers, and knock things around with tremendous strength. But if the player does things too out-of-the-ordinary, Octodad’s family will grow suspicious and realize what he really is. If they do, it’s game over for Octodad!

History

Octodad started as a student project under the team name DGE2 (DePaul Game Experience 2) at DePaul University and was created by a team of 18 people within a time-span of 4 months. Our goal with the project was to produce a game from idea to release to be ready for the Independent Games Festival student competition. We entered the competition on November 1st, the same day that the game was released to the wild. We found ourselves pretty overwhelmed by the press attention that followed and on January 10th, 2011 we found out that we had actually been chosen as an IGF Student Showcase Winner! This means that out of 283 games we placed in the top 8 for the student section. We took the game on the road to the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, CA and even managed to scrounge up a nice Microsoft Kinect demo for people to try out on the show floor.

Features

  • Emergent comedy through slapstick gameplay.
  • Quirky style and family values even a mother will approve of. (A cool mother.)
  • Professional fatherhood training you won't find anywhere else.

Videos

Official Trailer YouTube


Images

download all screenshots & photos as .zip (22MB)
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download logo files as .zip (455KB)
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Awards & Recognition

  • "Independent Games Festival Student Showcase Winner 2011."
  • "IndieDB's Top 100 Indie Games 2011."
  • "Fantastic Arcade Spotlight Game 2011."
  • "Gamasutra's Top 10 Indies of 2010 Honorable Mention."
  • "G4TV's Best Free Games 2010."


Selected Articles

  • "…quite possibly the weirdest game I have played this year…"
    - Jordan Devore, Destructoid
  • "…lets you concentrate on the little things, like staying relatively upright and not smashing every single object in your house…"
    - Quintin Smith, Rock, Paper, Shotgun
  • "…It’s the best slapstick routine I’ve seen in a game, period…"
    - Allen Cook, Gamers With Jobs
  • "…the indie game that stole my heart…"
    - Stephen Johnson, G4TV

G4TV X-Play Spot
Morgan Webb of G4TV's X-Play says Octodad is their favorite Free PC Game. http:.

Octodad Original Soundtrack (Available for FREE!)
Octodad's delightful soundtrack created by Seth Parker. http:.


About Young Horses

Boilerplate
As Young Horses we strive to push the boundaries of game design in order to create experiences that players have not seen before. This is not only because we think that we should be bringing something new to our medium and our industry, but because we think that innovation is necessary to reach new, broader audiences. Our goal is to create innovative, intelligent, and charming entertainment that can be enjoyed by both children and adults.

More information
More information on Young Horses, our logo & relevant media are available here.


Octodad Credits

Jake Anderson
Lead Designer

Majdi Badri
Game/Level Designer

Ben Canfield
Lead Visual Designer

Pil Chang
Artist

Nick Esparza
Lead Artist

Kevin Geisler
Gameplay/Audio/Visual Programmer

Kyle Hewitt
Artist

Shervin Hossein
Gameplay/UI Programmer

Kyle Marks
Game/Level Designer

Greg Mladucky
Game/Level Designer

John Murphy
Producer

Brian O'Donnell
Lead Programmer

Megan-Alyse O'Malley
Associate Producer

Philip Ono
Programmer

Seth Parker
Lead Sound Designer/Composer

Devon Scott-Tunkin
Physics/Graphics Programmer

Chris Stallman
Artist

Philip Tibitoski
Gameplay Programmer

Kevin Zuhn
Project Lead

Patrick Curry
Project Advisor

Scott Roberts
Project Advisor

Robert Steel
Sound Advisor

Alexander Seropian
Advisor


presskit() by Rami Ismail (Vlambeer) - also thanks to these fine folks