Welcome

Are you a game creator with a vision but held back by complex engines, steep learning curves amd overwhelmed by cryptic code? Yahaha Studio understands your needs and is dedicated to creating a low-barrier, code-free ? Yahaha Studio is here to change that. We offer a code-free, highly efficient game creation process that minimizes the learning curve and lowers the barrier to entry. With a focus on horror themes, we provide exciting game templates and a vast asset library filled with ready-to-use horror mechanics, so you can skip redesigning and dive straight into creation. Let your creativity soar in the ocean of game development. 

What are you waiting for? Join us on this thrilling journey through the shadows of creativity. Craft your horror game, and let it send shivers down the spines of players everywhere. Submit your game to our event, and who knows, you might just be the next horror game sensation!

We're excited to share updates to the Yahaha Game Creation Event:

- Event Timing: Our 7-day challenge is now a 21-day challenge.

- Increased Rewards: We've boosted the prize pool for the Horror Hatch event to incentivize participation and creativity. Details on the rewards can be found below.

- New Criterion: We've added "Game Duration" to our scoring, encouraging games over 20 minutes for a richer player experience.

- Flexibility for Veterans: Despite the extended timeline, you maintain the freedom to create as you wish.

Let's embrace these updates and continue to push the boundaries of game creation together!

Theme

Overgrown

Background 

You are a researcher assigned to a remote orbital greenhouse, responsible for maintaining a collection of specialized plants. Hidden among them are Mimics, parasitic lifeforms that disguise themselves as ordinary vegetation. As they grow, they become aware of your presence and begin to resist your control.
Your tasks involve more than routine care. You must observe subtle behavioral anomalies, identify disguised threats, and destroy their hatching sacs before it's too late.
Interfering too often or reacting too slowly will raise their alertness. Once it reaches a critical level, Mimics begin to expand their sensory range and reproduce rapidly. To prevent a full takeover, you must enter infected zones, retrieve their cores, and incinerate them while avoiding detection by roots, sensors, and other dangers.

Please note: For this game jam, please consider the provided background as the storyline of your game. The hints and key features listed below are designed to help you build a stronger game and achieve higher scores—so be sure to give them extra attention.

Key Features

- Routine Tasks, Hidden Terrors: Perform basic daily tasks like adjusting temperature, watering, and pruning. But every action risks triggering hidden aberrations, turning routine into a deadly trap.

- Deception in the Details: Aberrations mimic normal plants or equipment. Players must detect subtle clues, ike slight color shifts, delayed responses, or abnormal behavior—to tell real from fake. Accurate identification impacts plant recovery.

- Get Close to Destroy the Core: The key objective is to approach and destroy the aberration’s “perception core.” Players must sneak in and collect key materials before being detected. It’s not about running away—it’s about daring to get close.

-Temporary Tools, Limited Relief: Deploy tools like laser walls, signal jammers, and pesticide drones to temporarily delay the spread—but their effects are short-lived, buying only narrow windows for action.

-Every Move Has a Cost:Every action, intervention, or mistake speeds up the aberration of the plant station. As the instability level rises, more complex mechanics are unlocked—like expanded detection range, faster spawning, and lockdown of certain areas.

Hints

-Not Every Request Deserves a Response: Responding to every plant request can accelerate the aberration index. Observation takes priority over actio n, so watch for behavioral anomalies before intervening.

-Destroy the Eggs Before They Hatch: Eliminating hatching sacs early is far easier than dealing with awakened Mimics. Hesitation can be fatal.

-Fear and the Objective Are One: Victory lies not in escape, but in getting close enough to destroy the core. Your fear and your goal live in the same place.

-Restart Doesn’t Mean Reset: Failure triggers a system reboot, but some Mimics remember. They evolve, developing new deception tactics like layered disguises, feints, and delayed lures.

If you act quickly, the system remains stable. If not, the greenhouse will fall, and you will become the next experiment.

We recommend taking a look at Shift At Midnight as a reference—it showcases a VHS horror aesthetic, deduction-based gameplay, and escalating psychological tension.