Gone Home developer surprise-drops Toilet Spiders in early access

Fullbright, the studio behind the likes of Gone Home and Tacoma, has released its next game in early access.

Fulbright is helmed by solo developer Steve Gaynor. In 2021, Gaynor made headlines after an exodus of 15 Fullbright staff was, in part, blamed on his behaviour toward fellow workers. He announced he was going solo in 2023.

With very little, if any, fanfare, yesterday the developer surprise dropped Toilet Spiders on Steam. The game is said to feature a "lo-fi hell world of giant spiders jumping out of toilets onto your face".

In a post on Steam, Gaynor said he had started an "ongoing series of small, strange, lo-fi games" which would be released in early access, as part of a 'Fullbright Presents' push. And, Toilet Spiders is one of these games.

"This isn't a super-rough alpha early access launch either, the game is actually a pretty polished version of itself," Gaynor wrote. "There's a little more in the way of features and content to add, balance to improve, and bugs you'll help me find that I'll need to fix, but really at its heart this is the game as it's intended to be played."

Gaynor's young daughter, Juniper, gave him the idea for Toilet Spiders. Apparently, one day she asked about a spider jumping out from the loo and scaring her grandma. "And of course my immediate response was, well I could make a video game out of that," Gaynor explained, and now we have Toilet Spiders (with credit to Juniper, of course).

"The idea for the game ended up aligning with a number of other conceptual items I'd been wanting to play with: a game set in an abandoned research facility, a straight-up horror game, a game about managing your resources and tilting the odds inspired by the brilliant Buckshot Roulette. And so, for better or worse, TOILET SPIDERS was born."

Gaynor added a few amusing review quotes to his post, proclaiming that Toilet Spiders is "what Psycho did for showers..." and "Jaws did for the ocean". So, will you be able to look at your toilet the same way again?

If you are interested, Toilet Spiders is available on Steam, for less than £5.

As for Fullbright's previous games, we were quite taken with Gone Home, calling it a "triumphant exploration of a beautifully textured family space" in Eurogamer's review.