So far it’s been a pretty quiet and relaxed one. It’s beautifully cool and clear outside. My favorite sort of fall weather. October is by far my favorite month. I love the pumpkins and the colorful leaves. The weather is cool enough for light sweaters and cute dresses with boots.
Halloween is by far my favorite holiday. You get to dress up in cool costumes and play pranks on people. There’s plenty of sweets. It’s the best. As a teenager I worked every October at a corn maze as a haunter which means I got paid to jump out of corn and scare people. It was fantastic and I have so many fond memories of standing out in the cold, damp, dark just waiting to jump out at people. One year I was I was this Vampire Leprechaun and it was around the time those Sparkly Vampire books got to be so popular. So I would have all these teenage girls coming up to me wanting hugs. You couldn’t tell anything about me when I was wearing that costume because it covered me from head to toe so people would ask me if I was a dude or a chick. I would just give them vague spooky answers and then give them directions so they would get more lost and then I could scare them again. I was really good at it. The pay was generally either at or below minimum wage but I didn’t care. I had so much fun and it was for a charity. The corn maze was the main funding for a what was essentially an orphanage. It was actually called a boy’s home because they exclusively took boys generally teenagers. It closed down recently due to an incident caused by the state sending them more and more unstable children. It wasn’t set for that. It was a place for lost boys to get their heads on straight and learn how to be functioning members of society.
The corn maze just moved to a new location with a new name and it no longer benefits a charity since the owners are still paying off the new place. The old corn maze spot will always have a special place in my heart. The way the fog rolls across the valley from the creek late at night. The way the cold damp just settles against your skin. The stars and the moonlight above a field of corn.
I think my experiences as a haunter at a corn maze are why I enjoy making horror games so much. There’s that rich atmosphere and I get to create this whole dark little world for people to enjoy. There is a certain joy in being scared or startled when you know you can’t get hurt. I like being able to share that with people and I am so excited that Frostbite is nearly done. I sincerely hope that when it comes out you will buy, play, and enjoy my scary little game.
The post It’s my birthday! appeared first on Gilded Octopus.
