‘Marathon’ this, ‘Spider-Man’ that, so far as I am involved the actual PlayStation Showcase showstopper was the years-in-the-making follow-up to probably the most autumnal game of all time

There have been numerous heaters at yesterday’s huge Sony “State of Play” announcement stream, however solely certainly one of them (okay, two, I can not deny Alan Wake 2) actually set my coronary heart aflutter: Revenant Hill, a comfortable, autumnal “stray cat in an odd world” game that simply would possibly put Stray on discover. Revenant Hill would be the first launch of The Glory Society, a developer co-op based by Night time within the Woods creators Bethany Hockenberry and Scott Benson.

Night time within the Woods is one thing particular, an journey game set in a diminished industrial city referred to as Possum Springs, a spot like rural Pennsylvania, however populated totally by lovable anthropomorphic animals, and whose proud historical past of labor resistance has been appended with a tragic coda of post-industrial decline. You play as Mae Borowski, the primary member of her household to go to school, and likewise the primary to then drop out of faculty, as she places the items of her life again collectively within the shadow of a vaguely supernatural thriller.

It is like Daria meets Twin Peaks, a loving, melancholy portrait of a dying city dropped at life with Benson’s attractive storybook artwork and animation. It is the right game to play within the fall too, with a hazy heat colour palette and the motion of NITW itself happening from late summer time via early winter.

Revenant Hill seems to be to press the fuel on each autumnal vibes and the themes of early industrial labor organizing. Its first trailer reveals protagonist Twigs the cat operating alongside via varied distinctive locales, together with a witches’ coven and a metropolis with putting staff within the background, earlier than deciding on a hill above a wheat area. This seems to be like a world with people, anthropomorphic animals, and kooky skeleton guys dwelling collectively in concord (or at the very least dwelling collectively), and the trailer as an entire jogged my memory of Cartoon Community’s 2016 animated sequence, Over the Backyard Wall.

Revenant Hill’s official web site describes the plot as follows:

“It’s 1919 within the Decrease North. After the barn he was dwelling in burns down,Twigs the cat takes up residence in a moist log close to an deserted graveyard. When the owl from the following hill over begins demanding lease, Twigs should discover a solution to make ends meet, and issues simply get extra difficult from there.

Occasions are arduous, making ends meet is more durable, and the world doesn’t cease on the fringe of the graveyard. One thing huge and darkish is at work within the cities, the factories, within the forests and hills. In the end, somebody goes to need to push again.”

Say no extra, I am in. We don’t but have a launch window and even related storefront pages for Revenant Hill, however it’s confirmed for launch on Steam, and you’ll join e-newsletter updates on the game’s official web site.