The first release in a five-game publishing deal
Following game concepts including Max Payne with vampires, Kojima’s Strands with witches, organ trading, and an airport for aliens currently run by dogs, Xalavier Nelson Jr’s Strange Scaffold studio are back with another doozy. They’ve announced a release date of April 16th for Life Eater, a game about a modern-day druid who must kidnap and sacrifice people every year to sate a dark god and keep the world from ending. I know what you’re thinking: surely he’s insane in the membrane, insane in the brain. But what if he isn’t?
A press release says the kidnapping simulator is “inspired by the Saw media franchise and the apocalyptic paranoia of 10 Cloverfield Lane.” You’ll have to stalk your neighbours to discover suitable victims and their lives, then abduct and sacrifice them before either the cops find you or, you know, the world ends.
I know, I know, clearly it’s setting up the idea that perhaps he’s a nut, he’s crazy in the coconut, and that boy needs therapy, but with the potential end of the world looming, dare you not? Namedropping 10 Cloverfield Lane does remind me that multiple terrible things can be happening at once. While the concept could pan out tediously edgy in the hands of many developers, I do trust Strange Scaffold’s ability to tell interesting stories. Besides, surely a video game wouldn’t let you do anything morally questionable.
Life Eater is headed to Steam on the 16th of April, priced at $15.
The release of Life Eater will be the first fruit of a five-game partnership between Strange Scaffold and publisher Frosty Pop. Coming up are: I Am Your Beast, a secret agent revenge thiller FPS; Frosty Pop’s fighting game Pillow Champ, which Nelson is writing on; a mobile version of the Max Payne-y vampire shooter El Paso; a mysterious “after-hours library horror game”; and “a co-op kaiju horror cooking title”.
Disclosure: Xalavier Nelson Jr. has written for RPS in years past, everything from reviewing Frostpunk to examining the assassins of Assassin’s Creed.