Indie dev says 'best I can do is sentient tofu' after fans demand a male protagonist—they respond oh yeah, actually Mr Tofu works fine, thanks

Quick question: when you make a character in a game, do you play as your own gender or get wild with it? Me, I always used to play as a man (which I am, notionally, in real life) as a kid, but these days I play a woman 99% of the time. Women? Cool. Women with a gun/sword/lightsaber/inherited-and-possibly-magical-farmyard? Even cooler. It's simple maths.

But some people are bad at maths, like one fan of upcoming delivery sim Honcho, who took to the game's Steam forums to make a humble request: please let me play as a dude.

"There's really only one thing that I am hoping for, and that's the ability to build a play as a male character if you want to," wrote the user. "I'm not a fan of playing female characters. Kind of ruins my immersion, honestly."

That request was made last September and quickly fell into the ashbin of Steam-forum history, until the developer, Greg Pryjmachuk, popped their head in two days to declare the problem solved. "I've added the ability to play as Mr Tofu, who is a sentient block of Tofu which hides the player's body with [an] option to also hide hands."

Pryjmachuk actually highlighted the exchange themself on their Bluesky—in what has turned into a cunning bit of viral marketing for the game that I confess to have fallen hook, line, and sinker for—summarising their own response as "Me (indie dev in this economy): 'Best I can do is sentient tofu.'"

Steam community: “Can we play as a male character?”Me (indie dev in this economy):“Best I can do is sentient tofu.”

— @minskworks.bsky.social (@minskworks.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-03-04T16:19:38.033Z

Honcho is not yet released, but when it is, you will be able to play Mr Tofu by entering your name as Tofu at the game's beginning. "This game is funded by hopes and dreams, so it's unlikely I'll have the breathing room to add a fully rigged male character with their own unlockable outfits and story beats," Pryjmachuk wrote on the original Steam forum thread. "Hopefully, the above is a reasonable compromise."

I'll be honest, my favourite part of this whole story is the original player's response to Mr Tofu. "That would be good for some of us, at least for now," they wrote. "Regardless of what character we play as, I support you wholeheartedly. Been a fan of your work for years, and it's an honour to even get to see the work you've put out so far." It's honestly quite heartwarming!

You might immediately think a player reluctant to play a lady would be some kind of boring chud, but I think they're just someone who prefers to play as a guy. It's not my cup of tea, and I think it's maybe a little bit limited in imagination, but hey! To each their own. Or, to one set of players, a lady, to the others, Mr Tofu, a sentient block of tofu.