Hoomanz! Dev Interview: Stress, Scare, and Progress!

Developed by independent game studio Koffeecup, Hoomanz! flips the script on traditional stealth gameplay. Instead of playing as a hardened operative sneaking through enemy territory, you control Shoo, the mythical guardian of Planet Erf, whose job is to scare away the overly affectionate human invaders before they love the planet to death. The twist? Light transforms Shoo into a slow, vulnerable fluffball that humans desperately want to cuddle, while darkness unleashes a fast, stealthy predator capable of delivering proper scares.

This duality between Light Shoo and Dark Shoo creates a constant push and pull throughout each level. You need to stress out the humans first by creating environmental distractions without being spotted, then swoop in during your dark form to finish the job with a well-timed scream. Get caught in the light? Prepare for an unwanted hug and a quick respawn. The game promises zero combat, zero game-overs, and zero punishing checkpoints, making it genuinely accessible for players of all ages while still offering enough challenge for seasoned gamers.

We sat down with Lukasz Rynski, Game and Technical Director at Koffeecup, to dive deep into the creative chaos that birthed this project. From the studio's journey into Unreal Engine 5 to the countless redesigns of Shoo himself, the development story behind Hoomanz! proves just as entertaining as the game itself. Lukasz walks us through the challenges of creating a non-violent stealth experience, the community feedback that shaped the final product, and why darkness has never felt quite so cozy.

For those new to it - what is Hoomanz! in your own words?

"Scare away all the invading Hoomanz! A stealth-adventure game packed with coziness and humour, featuring non-combat gameplay & family-friendly content. Play as Shoo, the mythical guardian of Planet Erf, with a hidden dual nature. Darkness is nature's friend, light is its enemy."

What inspired you to create Hoomanz!, and how has the vision evolved since the first concept?

"It all started with our internal little secret project called “Area 51”. There wasn’t that one spark, the light bulb over someone’s head that lit up and said: “HOOMANZ!”. We knew we finally wanted to create our own game, we had created multiple games and experiences already, but they were all for clients. We wanted a baby of our own, a platform to just go nuts with our ideas, our own creative freedom. And since we were heavy on Unity, we wanted to expand our expertise into Unreal Engine. Furthermore, we dived in detail on this topic in our first devlog about Hoomanz."

How would you describe the core gameplay loop to someone picking it up for the first time?

"Short explanation: The mechanics are simple – In each level, your mission is to stress the Hoomanz before scaring them away for good. Shoo is slow, cute and vulnerable in light, and Hoomanz will do anything to hug him! But in the dark, Shoo is fast, stealthy and can scare away Hoomanz with a scream."

We've been provided with a more comprehensive look at how it all works in action, too:

• To stress the Hoomanz, use your environment to create sound without being seen: step on leaves or throw some bottles (and more). Once they’re stressed, get close and in your dark form use your scream to scare them away!
• For this, your dash and adorable squeak can lure the Hoomanz. But be careful, though in the dark you’re sneaky and fast, in artificial light you become cute, with a shorter dash and slower stamina regeneration.
• If you’re seen, you’ll be chased and caught by the Hoomanz. But don’t worry, even though Shoo hates hugs, a few hugs never killed anyone. You’ll just respawn a little further along, without losing your progress.

What’s been the biggest challenge you’ve faced during development?

"A pretty surprising challenge was keeping our imagination and creativity in reasonable brackets, as there was no client telling us what to do. A client is usually what gives us those creative boundaries, but now we were able to work as free spirits. Eventually we had to come back down to Erf Earth to deliver the game."

Shoo has a fascinating ‘dual nature’ that are Dark Shoo and Light Shoo. What design ideas motivated giving him such contrasting forms?

"The prey to predator is the core of the duality - it's not quite "prey but also predator", it's the constant back and forth between being the prey (Light Shoo) and slowly becoming the predator (Dark Shoo), and repeat, on a micro level within a specific group of hoomanz, but also on a macro level on the whole level.

Lastly, the really interesting thing is that dark is cold and dim, but it's where you feel comfortable, while light is warm and colorful but is where you feel vulnerable. We've put a lot of effort into making the player feel that way, from sound muting when you enter the light, so subtle changes in gameplay like movement speed, dash distance etc"

Can you tell us about any features you had to cut or completely rethink along the way?

"Not without spoiling anything for possible future content! But, regardless of the cheeky tease, we rethought the main character design countless times. Shoo actually had quite a lot of “final” versions.

We go more in-depth about the evolution of Shoo’s design in our 2nd devlog on Hoomanz."

The game features no-combat and stealthy scaring and you've put a lot of thinking into creating non-violent mechanics — which one was your favorite and why?

"It's hard to pick one, we love them all, but probably the very first interaction will always stay in our hearts. It all started with just throwing a bottle from the bush to scare-stress some hoomanz. NO LITTERING!"

The stealth-adventure genre often involves punishments for failure, but Hoomanz! avoids that. What motivated your decision to keep gameplay accessible and forgiving, with no punishing checkpoints or game-overs?

"Since day 1 we knew we wanted this game to be super accessible and family-friendly, easy enough for anyone to pick up and have fun, but at the same time challenging enough for the more seasoned gamers. We’re confident that we found the right balance."

How has player or community feedback influenced the game so far?

"Quite a healthy amount actually. We’ve shown Hoomanz! to the public for the first time in 2024 at Gamescom and took a lot of that feedback to heart. Seeing the super positive reactions this year at Gamescom, it was definitely worth it!

If you’re interested in how our first Gamescom went, we covered it in our blog post. Also has a kick-ass aftermovie! And of course we also have one covering this year’s Gamescom. We added Shoo to the aftermovie this time, too!"

What do you hope players will feel when they step into Shoo’s shoes and experience Hoomanz! for the first time?

"Hahaa, nice one! When players step into the shoes of Shoo’s shoes to shoo away Shoo’s enemies, they hopefully feel humoured, in awe, whimsical, cuteness overload and just generally make them feel happy."

The game is built in Unreal Engine 5. What technical hurdles or benefits have you encountered using UE5 for Hoomanz!?

"Technically Hoomanz! is not a huge challenge for an experienced team, while this was our first project with Unreal - learning and adapting to a new environment was the real challenge."

What’s been the funniest or most surprising bug you’ve run into during development?

"Our favorite one was actually discovered by one of the players at 2024’s Gamescom, where they somehow managed to bug out Shoo so it kept walking backwards; like a Smooth Criminal! It took us quite a while to actually replicate it."

If you had to choose, who’s your favorite character, unit, or element in the game and why?

"Shoo, and how the Hoomanz excessively hug Shoo to a point it has to respawn. That’s definitely the top one we get positive feedback from the community."

Looking ahead, with Hoomanz! slated for release in Q4 2025, what’s next for the game? Can we expect post-launch updates, community-driven content like the Shoo skin competition, or more themed giveaways?

"That entirely depends on how well the game will do. We don’t want to spoil too much, but the community has been yearning for co-op. If the game does well, we’d really love to work on making that happen!"

And finally, if you could sum up Hoomanz! in three emojis, which would you pick and what do they represent?

"🐾😱🌓 - paws of Shoo, stress/scare, duality of dark and light"

From its origins as a secret internal project to its upcoming Q4 2025 release, Hoomanz! represents everything we love about independent game development. The team at Koffeecup took their expertise, their creative freedom, and their passion for accessibility to craft something genuinely unique in the stealth-adventure space. The constant interplay between vulnerable Light Shoo and powerful Dark Shoo creates a gameplay loop that feels fresh, while the non-combat approach and forgiving design ensure that players of all skill levels can enjoy the experience without frustration.

What stands out most from our conversation with Lukasz is the care and intention behind every design decision. The environmental interactions that let you stress out humans without violence, the way sound mutes when you enter the light to make you feel exposed, the decision to make hugs annoying rather than punishing. These choices reflect a studio that truly understands how mechanics communicate feeling, and how accessibility does not mean sacrificing depth or challenge.

Whether you are a stealth game veteran looking for something different or a newcomer who wants a gentler entry point into the genre, Hoomanz! looks poised to deliver something special. Wishlist Hoomanz! on Steam and follow Koffeecup on your preferred platforms to stay updated on the latest news. Planet Erf needs its guardian, and those overly affectionate humans are not going to scare themselves away, will they now?

Wishlist Hoomanz! on Steam and follow Koffeecup on your preferred social media!