The Boo-chelor is a wildly creative Halloween-inspired dating-show visual novel where a lonely ghost MC becomes the star of a paranormal reality TV show and must choose between three chaotic monster suitors. Combining comedy, character twists, saturated visuals, and reality-show structure, the game quickly became a fan favorite during Spooktober.

In this exclusive interview, Glass, the solo developer behind Glasswing Games, shares the origins of The Boo-chelor, the creative decisions behind its monsters, writing, humor, and art direction, and the surprises that came from player reactions.

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The Solo Dev of The Boo-chelor

Glass:
“Yes, of course. So I’m Glass of Glasswing Games. I’m a solo developer who has developed a few games over the past couple of years. I did a game for Spooktober last year and then again for this year. I’ve worked on a couple of other projects. I was a UI artist and a background artist, and I’ve got a long-term project also going on in the background. So lots of visual novels and lots of hats as part of it.”

Highlights from The Boo-chelor

Glass:
“No, the passion project that I’ve been doing in the background, that’s completely myself, that’s completely solo. Last year I did a lot of different things as part of that project, had a few extra hands as help, but this is the first released game that I’ve finished that is a solo project, yes.”

Glass:
“The Boo-chelor is a comedy Halloween visual novel about a dating show. It’s a love letter to all the reality dating shows that I’ve watched before. I pulled some of my favourite parts of all of them. It’s all meant to be very silly. You’re a character who has finally been chosen on your favourite reality TV show that only shows up once a year, and you’ve got a chance to choose between three really chaotic monsters to hopefully find love or if not, at least become a viral trend on CryptTok.”

Glass:
“It actually came from me watching another reality dating show. Originally I wasn’t going to do anything for Spooktober this year because I had other projects, but I was watching Celebs Go Dating and thought: Could I do something really funny with this? What if all the contestants were monsters?

I started thinking of all these what-ifs for how to make a dating show into a visual novel.

The ghost MC came from that an amalgamation of everyone I know who loves reality TV. They’re relatable, slightly unhinged, and perfect for a dating show where chaos is guaranteed.”

Glass:
“I just genuinely wanted people to have fun.

There’s threatening language from one character in particular, which is why I called that out specifically, but overall I just wanted people to enjoy themselves.

As I started writing more and more, it became a thing of wanting to catch people by surprise to play into tropes but also make things unexpected and keep players on their toes.

My goal was simply to make people enjoy themselves from beginning to end.”

The Characters in The Boo-chelor

Glass:
“So Calamaria was one of the first ones I had the concept for because I wanted a character who was very ravenously in love.

Originally she was going to be a mermaid, a very typical mermaid, one of the kinds you see in fairgrounds, very floaty, elegant, cute. But I wanted a bit more gravitas. I wanted someone who was very full of themselves, but in this sort of charming way.

So it came to me that she should be a sea witch because that fits with her character of having a lot of power and being a little bit terrifying.

A lot of what I did with her came from the feminine grotesque. I wanted to lean into that femininity, but make her love so all-consuming that it’s almost funny and frightening at the same time.

She was my favorite to draw and animate because she’s so expressive. Calamaria was basically me saying: What if a beautiful woman loved you TOO much?”

Glass:
“So with Rex, I wanted someone who was very sweet, very devoted, someone who’s just genuinely nice to the MC.

Originally, he was going to be a ghost hunter, which is why I mention that in one of the endings. But as I was writing him, I realized that didn’t really suit his vibe. He was meant to be someone very fun.

So he became this sort of werewolf himbo. Someone who’s very charming, a little bit dumb, but in the most loveable way possible.

He’s someone who genuinely just wants to have a good time with you. I wanted him to feel like a safe space especially compared to Calamaria’s intensity and Dave’s… everything.”

Glass:
“So originally, Dave was going to be a zombie. That’s why there are still zombie references but as I was writing him, I realized he’s way too weird to be a zombie.

Dave is… whatever he wants to be, really. He’s a problem. A fun problem, but still a problem.

His whole thing is that he’s chaotic and shouldn’t exist. He says things that no normal being should say. He does things that make absolutely no sense. And the MC just goes with it because they’re used to weirdness.

Dave was very much me indulging my love of characters who are unhinged but lovable, the kind who make you ask:
“Why am I attracted to this?”

He’s probably the fan favorite just because he’s such a mess.”

Glass:
“The MC is based on everyone I know who loves reality TV. They’re dramatic, they care deeply, and they desperately want something exciting to happen in their life.

They were originally a completely normal human, but making them a ghost opened up so many fun visual gags and gave them a perfect excuse to be both expressive and deadpan.

I wanted the MC to be someone people could project onto but also laugh with someone who can say what many of us would say in a ridiculous dating show scenario.

The MC being dead also made the stakes very funny. Like, what are they going to do, kill you again?”

Glass:
“Jack was created purely to bully the MC. I needed someone who would push the plot along, explain the rules, and also make fun of everyone equally.

He was actually inspired by British reality show hosts, the ones who are very deadpan and sarcastic and love stirring drama.

Jack is the person who makes the show feel like an actual production. He’s messy, he’s dramatic, he’s tired, and he just wants to go home, but he WILL get good ratings.

He’s also there to balance the cast Calamaria’s intensity, Rex’s sweetness, Dave’s insanity, by just being annoyed at all of them.”

The Development of The Boo-chelor

Glass:
“So the art direction came very naturally because I already do a lot of bright, saturated artwork. My background is in UI and background design, so color and readability were very important.

I wanted the whole game to feel fun, very Halloween-y, and just… loud. Not in an overwhelming way but in the way that a dating show is loud.

Each character needed to be instantly readable. So Calamaria has her very dramatic, sharp silhouette; Rex has a very rounded, friendly silhouette; Dave is… Dave.

The art style really came from wanting it to be a very fast, accessible visual novel, where the tone is clear from the very first moment this is meant to be silly, ridiculous, and enjoyable.”

Glass:
“I wanted this to be a game where the expressions do a lot of the jokes. Because it’s a comedy visual novel, you need the characters to react in a really exaggerated way.

So I leaned heavily into expression sheets. Calamaria gets to look terrifying and lovestruck in the same sentence. Rex gets these big puppy-dog eyes. Dave gets… expressions that probably shouldn’t exist.

The MC being a little floating ghost blob gave me a lot of opportunities for slapstick animation, like squashing and stretching them.

Animation had to be quick because the project was done for Spooktober, but it still needed impact. I tried to make every expression add to the comedy.”

Glass:
“I tried to write each route as if the character themselves was pulling the narrative.

Calamaria makes everything dramatic and operatic. Everything she does is “love at first sight but make it terrifying.”

Rex slows the pace down. He’s more grounded, more emotional, and he’s the one who helps the MC feel safe.

Dave speeds everything up because he’s basically a walking jump cut. His route is very chaotic and breaks the flow on purpose.

I also wanted each route to feel like a completely different episode of the same reality show, because that’s how dating shows work.

My main goal was:
Make people laugh, but let the characters feel real in their own bizarre ways.”

Glass:
“Yes. This was always meant to be comedy first.

I watch a lot of reality TV, and so many of the funniest parts are the moments where people are trying to be dramatic but they’re just slightly too human.

So I wanted to take that and push it way further by adding monsters, because monsters let you exaggerate things without breaking believability.

And I love writing punchlines. A lot of the writing process was just me giggling to myself thinking, “Okay, what is the most unhinged thing Dave could say here?”

Glass:
“The time constraint shaped everything.

I had to write very fast. I had to animate fast. I had to code fast. And because of that, the game ended up feeling very snappy, which honestly suits the style.

Comedy benefits from fast pacing, so the time limit actually helped the writing be sharper.

But also: never again. Or maybe again, but preferably not soon.”

Glass:
“I think the main thing from The Boo-chelor was I learnt what I could handle, and I think before you start a jam game, it’s about being really honest with yourself about what you can handle.

From last year, I knew what I was able to do for that game, so even though I was doing a bit extra for this one, I was able to account for that.

With things like scope, it’s: whatever you think you could scope for, always plan less. Because originally my idea was slightly larger, and then I de-scoped to make it something that I felt could fit within that timeframe.

I tend to use an Excel spreadsheet / Google Sheet to track my progress and to track all the assets. I find making a list really helpful to go, ‘Here’s everything I need to do,’ otherwise my brain will just completely forget it or think, ‘Oh, I’ve only got these six things to do,’ when in reality I’ve got like 17 things to do.

So it’s always just being really honest with yourself and also giving yourself a buffer for every single task. For example, I thought I could do the writing in a week and a bit and it ended up being closer to two weeks, but because I’d accounted for that buffer, it meant that I wasn’t… by the end it was still a bit tight, but I wasn’t sitting there going, ‘No, I’m going to have to cut the game.’ Everything was still manageable because I’d given myself the buffer.

Another thing I did was figure out what my plan B would be, because you can never know what’s going to happen in reality and something is always going to pop up that’s completely out of your control. So I figured out what I needed to be able to do in that case like if the musician had to drop out, were there any royalty-free soundtracks I could use, etc.? If I wasn’t able to finish the backgrounds, could I reduce the scope of that?

So I think it’s always being really open about having a plan B and deciding when to check in at different points of the jam to go, ‘Do I need to start using those plan Bs?’

I was very lucky I didn’t have to really use those plan Bs this time, but it’s always good to have them just to be on the safe side.”

Glass:
“I think the MC’s popularity probably surprised me the most because I felt people would be more focused on the love interests.

For the love interests specifically, I was kind of hoping people would love Jack, so I was a little less surprised about that.

But I think it’s the Calamaria love. I was always concerned because she just uses threatening language all the time. I was worried some people might not receive that very well understandably, she is threatening to destroy the universe every time you speak to her.

But people have really been hyping her up and I’ve loved all the different reactions to both her and her voice. I’m just like, yep, I’m here. I think because I am one of the leaders of the Calamaria fan club, I’m like: yes, come and join me.

I think I haven’t seen as much reaction for Rex, so I don’t know if it’s just because people who do play Rex haven’t commented, but I would be interested to see other people’s thoughts on Rex at some point.

Definitely play Rex and definitely also give Rex a hug, because they are the goodest of boys and they have their own twist which is very fun.”

Glass:
“Well, I wanted to give something back to all of the ‘I Want To Date Jack’ fan club.

So it’s currently in process. We are planning on expanding just to incorporate an additional Jack route. There will be very specific conditions to be able to date our pumpkin-shaped host.

But at some point in the future, I’m working with Jack’s voice actor to bring and let people romance our favourite pumpkin host.”

Exclusive Content

Glass:

“Yeah, so I had a few initial scrapped ideas for The Boo-chelor. Originally, it was going to be a bit bigger than it was.

My initial idea was that it would have more than the core three love interests. At the start of any game, they would be randomly chosen to give different dynamics and interactions.

Some of the potential love interests which didn’t end up making the cut when I de-scoped it were:

• A witch who only spoke in curses if you think of something like Macbeth but with rhyming. Her main thing was that she would always get cut off by Jack before she could finish her curse, so it would always be an incomplete curse.
• A vampire who keeps asking permission to be let in or rather, to be let out of his pod.
• And a Grim Reaper who was honestly just there to collect the MC’s soul.

So I scrapped that and went with the more set cast due to scope constraints, and I hadn’t fully fleshed out all of their stories, so I didn’t want to duplicate stuff. But I think it might be fun for a future game.”

The Boo-chelor may have been created for a game jam, but it carries the personality and polish of something made with genuine affection for the medium. Through chaotic humor, bold character design, and a surprising amount of charm, Glass has crafted a visual novel that embraces everything delightful about Halloween storytelling the monsters, the mayhem, and the unexpected sweetness.

This interview makes it clear that The Boo-chelor is more than a quick seasonal project; it’s a celebration of creativity, character-driven comedy, and the joy of making something that simply aims to brighten a player’s day. With future expansions, a Jack route in development, and an ever-growing fanbase, the world of The Boo-chelor is only getting started.

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