Harold Halibut

Harold Halibut is a 2024 video game developed by German independent developer Slow Bros for PlayStation 5, Windows and Xbox Series X/S. The game is a narrative-based adventure video game in which players control Harold, a janitor on a spacecraft submerged in an alien planet, and complete odd tasks for the ship's inhabitants. The game was created over a ten-year development process, first conceived as an unfunded part-time project to create a narrative game inspired by stop-motion animation. To implement a stop-motion aesthetic, the developers hand-made characters, objects and environments using various materials scanned into the game and animated in the Unity engine. During development, the game received several features, nominations and accolades for video game, film and culture festivals. Upon release, Harold Halibut received mixed reviews, with critics praising the ambition and detail of the game's visual presentation and the themes in its narrative, although critiquing the game's narrative focus as lacking puzzles and interactivity and having a slow pace.