Big Walk, the upcoming co-op adventure from the creators of Untitled Goose Game, looks as though it might be the next title players will dub a "friendslop" gem lovingly – but developers aren't quite sure how they feel about the fan-created genre name.
Stuart Gillespie-Cook and Nico Disseldorp of House House tell GamesRadar+ as much when asked what they think of the term.
"Complicated feelings on our end," admits Gillespie-Cook. "It's a funny one, where I really think it depends on how positively or negatively you want to take that term." He goes on to cite that there are plenty of other titles – think Peak and the like – that are similar in nature.
"The fact that there are a bunch of games that are popular at the moment, where hanging out with your friends is the chief activity? That's great. We love that," explains the dev. "I guess we've been making this game for so long that the kind of term and almost like the backlash for these types of games wasn't around when we started, and I think we were a bit nervous that, like, 'Is there even an audience for this type of game?' Like it was a bit foreign to us."
He concludes: "So I think that the emergence of this at least proves that, like, yeah, people are into these games. It's a slight bummer that the other half of the term is the 'slop,' but yeah."
Disseldorp echoes this last part himself, adding, "All artists always hate the name of the genre that people give them. So it's nothing new there."
It seems that, all in all, House House isn't quite sure how it feels about "friendslop" – it's got both negative and positive connotations.
The devs behind Peak similarly spoke on the term late last year, calling friendslop "juicy" and saying, "There's a real desire to connect and hang out in online worlds, and friendslop games put that at the front and center of the experience."
Need something else to look forward to with Big Walk still underway? Browse through our roundup of the best new games coming this year and beyond for more.
