Swery is looking for $1.5 million to create The Good Life
Deadly Premonition creator Hidetaka "Swery" Suehiro has launched the Fig campaign for his upcoming "debt repayment life simulation RPG" The Good Life. He's looking to raise $1.5 million via the hybrid crowdfunding/investment platform, a tall order given his previous games should be filed under "cult-classics" rather than "commercial hits". Still, he's got a fan following, so it will be interesting to follow the campaign over the next while.
As you'd expect from a Swery game it features a pretty bizarre premise. You play as Naomi, a photographer who comes to a small rural town in England called Rainy Woods (no clichés here, eh?). Now the twist is that there's a secret about the town folks, at night they turn into cats. As usual, Swery pulls inspiration from Twin Peaks, but he also pulls from British television like Downtown Abbey and Poirot. Hot Fuzz is also mentioned as an inspiration.
"This is a Swery Game, so expect a healthy dosage of horror, mystery, humor and taboo topics that helped make Deadly Premonition such a cult hit."
The gameplay revolves around earning your pay as a reporter and photographer. You investigate events, take photos and write a report to New York, then receive payment that you can put towards repaying your loan (thus advancing the main story) or towards your camera, food, personal appearance, and unlocking additional locations in town. At night, Naomi also becomes a cat and she's free to prowl the town and hunt for mice, bugs, and fish as well as finding items to carry the plot forward.
Here's a bunch of screenshots from the highly stylised game:
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And some cat-flavoured artworks:
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The game is planned for PC and to be announced consoles (a PS4 logo does appear in the campaign page), and a tentative release in the third quarter of 2019 is projected.
If you want to see the next Swery game happen, you may want to look into backing it...