Watch Out for Fireballs 491: Mouthwashing
Added 2025-10-02 16:15:01 +0000 UTCThis isn't so bad. We can fix this. We are definitely not in a catastrophe.
Mouthwashing is a bit-sized walking sim horror game that asks how do we handle the worst possible news. The answer is not well.
Comments
Thank you dear, scholar. I was wondering the same thing as Gary and Kaye.
Richard Cochnar
2025-10-04 14:32:03 +0000 UTCTo slightly explain 'why mouthwashing' became a tumblr 2024 indie darling- blame lets plays- Kaye probably already knows this as a horror streamer. But id thought id say what i saw as someone who just barely aged out of the target fandom age! As an older gen z, the online horror space since 2015 is predominantly people who aren't playing these games but watching people play them. Story rich, short, visual games tend to do well because its more for watchers to latch onto. If the watcher gets the story they can easily jump right into Fandom. This is a double edged sword, as the lets player's interpretation is going to taint a first impression of a game. (Shout out jacksepticeye as the 1/6 amab lets players I watched who put the pieces together Anya was SA'd before the Curly reveal.- which- yikes- most of these people were 30s-40s and didnt get that jimmy was only appologizing for the crash in the end) My memory of mouthwashing at the initial boom on tumblr was users predominantly 14-18s getting really into it. Im not saying this is why it became a fanart/fanfic alternate universe 'what if they kissed' darling, Fandom is for everyone, but with how starved modern indie horror short story based let's plays have been for the last 3 years, it was basically the only game to recomend for 3 months. Meaning soooo many people of this age group saw it. If you liked horror Fandom, congrats, welcome to the mouthwashing zone. So- deep story to pull the adults in with an adult twist+short run time+ 1 big youtuber plays it+ quick growing popularity means let's players jump on quick while the iron is hot+ popular let's players with audiences of 13-18 play jt+ social media becomes people who watched and not played= basically the formula to form a fairly young age group for a Fandom! REALLY good ep! Cant wait to listen to the episodes this month!
Futz
2025-10-03 22:45:34 +0000 UTCSwansea's monologue is one of my favourite things. They really gave him most of the hardest lines. I'm surprised you didn't touch on the metacommentary but it's pretty fuckin' subtextual - I wouldn't've caught it if not for seeing a palpabably vitriolic (laudatory) comment by a dev somewhere. And for anyone else who missed it; the Tulpar is AAA gamedev.
James Lloyd-Jones
2025-10-02 21:58:48 +0000 UTC
