Horni Jam!

Hey floofs! I participated in the first official HorniJam in April 2026 and this was my entry! :}} Unfortunately I had disruptions all weekend that kept me from completing the full game. However I still have something interactive to submit, so I'm publishing it as kind of a cryptic avant-garde exhibition piece for now. My goal is to finish the game in the coming days since the final concept should be kinda cool.

https://itch.io/jam/horni-jam

This was also my first game jam ever! :O Lots of learning, LOTS of stumbling. I'm glad I have something to show off even though I'm not super proud of it (yet).

concept:

• The finished game will be a puzzle-adventure hybrid with some secondary survival and relationship management mechanics. You play as a methodical Protogen ally in a futuristic world. The goal of the game has yet to be revealed (since I don't have some key characters in it yet.)

controls:

• mouse cursor and left click!

missing:

• it's currently missing LITERALLY ALL THE HORNI ;nnn;
• no audio
• no scene transitions / polish
• no savestates
•  the gameplay loop is very half baked. we're missing most of the player interaction/story, a very important (and interesting) game mechanic,  and all the various endings.
  

nuances/hints:

• you can talk to all the npc's except blue ones
• the npc's just have silly/rude idles for now
• you can only play one dialogue per npc per day
• no player responses (yet)
• you're playing as a Protogen (he's not shown yet, but the npc's talk to him like one)

known bugs:

• typewriter effect stops after the first line and starts insta-printing dialogue
• it's too easy to accidentally miss dialogue. click carefully
• some npc's have a weird hitbox for interaction (it works best clicking near the top of their card)
• resolution and camera alignment in the embedded itch player made the visuals cropped and blurry. I fought with it for about an hour and at least the important parts fit. Didn't test the build enough along the way. Will improve asap.

how I incorporated the prompt words:

• The jam words were the following:
  • witness
  • familiar
  • dichotomous
  • amortizations
  • mannerly
  • parboils
• The full game I had in mind is intended to cover them better, but the finished submission at least covers half-baked (parboils), dichotomous (factions i.e. aristocratic full-biological furries and the player as a protogen), mannerly (bad manners from the rude patrons), amortizations (limited interactions ticking down in the museum per day).

ai slop disclaimer:

• I was using developer graphics until literally the last two hours. I spun up some themey ai art to make it a bit more presentable since the game jam rules allow.
• I alsoooo generated at too high a resolution so they look extra slop when they're crushed smaller for Itch. Too late to fix now, rip :P

Let me know in the comments what you think so far!