THINGS TOO UGLY
Clock-in for the night shift. As a TEREBRO INC. Risk Assessment & Management Data Processor, you protect the company’s legacy.
In your antiquated workspace, you navigate instruments and sift through documents illuminated by the incandescent bulb of a desk lamp and the moonlight. The static crackles through tunes playing on a portable radio as you parse data. Unusual diagrams and photographs draw you in as you cull eerie details from archived files. Urgency mounts in the small hours. Your supervisor, looming via intercom, leads you through a long-buried episode from the company’s past. Equipped with GPS, encoder device, and more, can you reckon with what lays bare on your desk? Will you set right a decades-old wrong?
Set against the Mississippi River in 1986, Things Too Ugly twists experimental narratives within a challenging puzzle game. Wielding retro technologies, nostalgic aesthetics, and environmental horror, Things Too Ugly delivers a tense, interactive story.
Released on January 16th, 2025 for PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch, Sony PlayStation, and Xbox One / Series S/X.
The Art & World of Things Too Ugly
digital art book available on Steam
PC version gameplay screenshot
Things Too Ugly at Festivals & Conferences
2024 Games Exhibition, juried, Meaningful Play 2024. Carnegie Mellon University, Center for Transformational Play, Pittsburgh, PA.
Southern Fried Indie Showcase, juried, Southern Fried Gaming Expo, Atlanta, GA.
Future Classics Games Showcase, juried, Midwest Gaming Classic, Milwaukee, WI.
Independent Games Festival Awards, not juried, Game Developers Convention, San Francisco, CA.
2023 Game Showcase, juried, M+DEV: Midwest Game Development Conference, Madison, WI.
Indie Showcase, juried, Shawnee Games Conference, Shawnee State University, Portsmouth, OH.
Southern Fried Indie Showcase, juried, Southern Fried Gaming Expo, Atlanta, GA.
Official Selection, Virtual Reality & Game category. San Francisco Frozen Film Festival, 2023.