Anybody who’s played Bugsnax knows that it’s a lot darker than a first glance lets on, but early concepts could have made the game even darker. Developer Young Horses showed off a concept video on Twitter of a Bugsnax build that had you interactively “peeling and dismantling” the bodies of bugsnax before serving them to the other residents of the island.
An early idea for Bugsnax was that in addition to catching them, you’d have to peel and dismantle their bodies before serving them to your friends! #Bugsnax #ThrowbackThursday pic.twitter.com/CZG1ddGJlG
— Bugsnax (YH Games) (@YoungHorses) February 25, 2021
Given the inclusion of the video in the tweet, the idea of tearing apart bugsnax was more than just a casual idea thrown out during a brainstorming session. The gameplay mechanic was actually concepted, showing an Olove (known in the final game as Green Lollive) and Pinkle being ripped limb from limb before landing on a plate as an entrée ready to eat. The Olove’s wings are torn off one by one before it’s pimento tongue is pulled from its mouth. The Pinkle is slowly dismantled from its jar, the individual pickles tossed to the ground. It’s cartoonishly gruesome, and shows that Bugsnax was always designed to be a darker game than its vibrant exterior lets on.
In the final game, you simply feed the bugsnax whole to the Grumpuses on Snaktooth island, at which time portions of their bodies manifest as different food items based on which one they were fed. No need to rip the wings off a Lollive before serving it up as a delicious body-shifting treat.
Young Horses has been sharing a lot of early concepts for Bugsnax, including an idea as an on-rails Pokemon Snap-like experience that had you catching bugsnax from your food truck. There was also an idea for a procedural relationship system with the Grumpuses as part of a town building simulator, and even a food cannon that let you feed them from a distance. Their Twitter account is a journey through the Bugsnax that could have been, before the final design was ironed out to what we get at the PS5 launch.
