Perhaps “you are what you eat” may have been taken a little too seriously at Young Horses Games. A little game that’s been getting a lot of love from fans is Bugsnax, a whimsically strange adventure game all about sentient food on an island. Players are sent to an island teeming with life that all resembles burgers, strawberries, and other types of food. The game even has its own original theme song via indie pop band Kero Kero Bonito. The cute first trailer was enough to enthrall fans and encourage plenty of memes out of the game’s announcement.
The odd truth is that “memes,” jokes in gaming communities like Twitch or YouTube, running gags from developers, these can only benefit a game’s traction moving into release. Young Horses Games are fully aware and leaning into the comically perplexing world of Bugsnax wholeheartedly. Because of this, fan reaction to the title has been largely positive, as the game’s certainly not taking itself too seriously. Like several indie games, the bizarrely endearing nature of Bugsnax has certainly enjoyed the memes, and can only be good for the game itself.
Granted, Bugsnax was high profile enough initially to premier at the PlayStation 5’s initial reveal. Coming from the creators of Octodad, which in a similar way became very popular among indie fans, Bugsnax has enjoyed a bevy of memes and random jokes since announcement. Viral jokes and memes have typically only been good for indie games like Bugsnax, and could potentially lend to the game’s success this holiday. Memes have a very powerful and erratic ability to give games the exposure that they often deserve, in a very roundabout way.
Whether it’s the infectiously strange theme song or the pervasive fan theory that it’s actually a secret horror game, Bugsnax has enjoyed its time in the limelight. There’s not a whole lot known about gameplay thus far, other than you trap and collect the titular edible critters. Frankly, for a game like Bugsnax, this game’s already sold itself on the premise and world of Snaktooth Island. Considering fan interest is this high from two trailers alone, whoever’s likely going to get Bugsnax is probably already planning on getting it in the first place. Memes mean content creators are going to leap at the chance to play this game when its popularity resurges on release.
Similar indie titles have seen explosions in growth thanks to internet memes and viral content before. Just look at the explosion in popularity of Among Us, a game that’s already two years old and has only in the last month or two seen a huge surge in players. Twitch and YouTube content creators all jumped at the chance to play the game, and have certainly enjoyed themselves while playing it too. This has subsequently lead to developer InnerSloth cancelling an already-planned sequel to Among Us, solely to focus on further developing and improving the first game.
A similar instance occurred with Fall Guys, as the explosion of popularity on Twitch alongside being free on PS Plus propelled Fall Guys to a similar stardom. Granted Bugsnax doesn’t have that same multiplayer appeal that the aforementioned titles do, but it certainly has a potential to be a highly covered game by content creators. It’d perhaps be interesting see how a PS Plus boost could affect Bugsnax, as like any indie title, the game has enough factors of appeal that “free” would be an even more enticing reason to play the game.
The initial hype may have died down for now, but Bugsnax was certainly “meme’d” enough to the point where it’ll certainly be recognizable by fans in the future. Considering all of the coverage the game has received, alongside all of the jokes about the Bugsnax‘s aesthetic or strange themes, there’s no reason not to expect a solid spike in popularity upon release this holiday.
Bugsnax releases in holiday 2020 for PC, PS4, and PS5.
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