Tiny Tina’s Wonderland, High on Life, Five Nights at Freddy’s – there’s something uncomfortably appealing about combining the innocence of child-friendly imagery with straight-up horror, gore, and profanity. Gori Cuddly Carnage, another of these not so kid-friendly games, focuses on the horrifying mutation of a series of sentient kids’ toys. We spoke exclusively to John Kalderon, 3D artist and CEO at developer Angry Demon Studios, about the upcoming game before its release date reveal at Wired Direct ‘24.
At first glance, Gori Cuddly Carnage might look like a skate game for teens thanks to its cute cat protagonist, Gori, who speeds around a cyberpunk city on his sentient hoverboard, F.R.A.N.K. However, it doesn’t take long for Frank to start dropping F-bombs and decapitating rabid unicorn plushies using an extendable blade arm. “It looks a lot like a skating game, but it plays like a hack-and-slash. That is a very important distinction to make,” John confirms. “It plays like a Devil May Cry game. I don’t think that [other games] have the amount of enemies and carnage that we have, just the pure amount of chaos.”
It’s clear the small team at Angry Demon has given great thought to the severe juxtaposition of kids’ toys and R-rated content, as the adult themes go deeper than gratuitous gore. “Frank’s main mission is to basically be the voice of Gori. He understands Gori. Nobody else does,” John explains, referring to the fact that the cat protagonist only meows. “I was really excited to play with that fact… I had the example of [Frank saying] ‘Hey, Gori, what’s the meaning of life?’ He’s like, ‘Oh, that’s fantastic, I’m gonna live by those words.” And you just leave the player out of it on purpose.”
Similarly, the duo’s AI companion, CH1P, is the slow-speaking, depressed voice of reason to Frank’s bubbly excitement. “He has the personality for it,” John explains. “It’s basically like, ‘Ah! Let’s do this thing! This is going to be amazing!’, ‘Oh, do you have your vaccinations?’ Chip’s that guy. ‘If you don’t have your vaccinations, you’re all going to die.’”
That might sound like Gori Cuddly Carnage is a bit too self-aware, but, rest assured, the priority here is fun. “Everything we’ve done for this game has always been to make the experience fun,” John tells me, eyes bright. “The gore in the game was intended for fun. We didn’t do gore because gore is gore, but, like, ‘Look at this cute little thing. Let’s explode it.’ Now, that’s fun. Just ripping through things in, for example, Doom Eternal. That’s super fun.”
If this combination of fun, gore, and challenging that voice of reason sounds like your thing, Gori Cuddly Carnage is set for release on August 29 on Steam, as revealed during Wired Direct ‘24.
With a bit of a wait ahead of us, there could still be room for another beta test in the interim. When I told John I was ashamed to have not hopped on the demo before now, his only response was “Soon!” So make of that what you will.
While you wait for Gori, Frank, and Ch1p’s arrival, there are some great new PC games to play right now. Alternatively, just spend some time catching up on the other Wired Direct announcements like the new game from LKA studios, and the free Bulwark DLC and roadmap that will shape the future of the stylish city-builder.