Have you ever watched the muppets and thought “hey, these things are actually kind of creepy,” then My Friendly Neighborhood will personify those fears in ways that none of us were quite ready for: not even the developers. My Friendly Neighborhood is an upcoming survival horror FPS that pits the player against massive, murderous puppets while navigating the maze-like set of a children’s show. The premise alone is enough to scare, but developers John and Evan Szymanski told Kotaku about a clip from the game that’s already gone viral.
In the clip, the player shoots one of the puppets, only to watch in abject horror as that singular enemy splits into dozens upon dozens more, all assumedly hungry for human flesh. As terrifying as it sounds, this is actually a completely unintended bug caused by the way these puppets spawn into the game. John Szymanski explains: “I have a system that places enemies in specific spawning locations, and it grouped all of them together in one spot and set their animation cycles all the same without me knowing.” All those puppets pushing and bumping against each other was what caused the wave of puppet madness, as seen below.
The Szymanskis report that this bug is absolutely being included in the game, though to what degree has yet to be seen. John Syzmanski explained during his interview:
This effect is definitely going to make it into the game, but instead of relying on the failsafe interactions of the physics system, I’ll code the effect in a much more ‘intended’ way.
This isn’t the only bug being included in the final product, either, though this next one will give players the edge over the puppets. In the game, candy bars that increase the player’s speed for a short amount of time can be found all over the map. Eat enough, and you’ll be able to run fast enough to move straight through walls. Despite the fact that they’re aware the glitch exists, Szymanski says they’re absolutely fine with leaving the bug for dedicated players. In his own words: “To get your speed going as fast as that would take a lot of doing. But, I mean, if you’re dedicated enough, you’ll have a ball. And definitely soft-lock yourself.” My Friendly Neighborhood doesn’t have a release date at time of writing, but you can watch the trailer below.