Developer of the quite mad Deadly Premonition and D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die, Swery65 (real name Hidetaka Suehiro) had previously announced that he would be unveiling his newest game at PAX West in Seattle later this year. The panel, entitled ‘Coffee Time With Swery65,’ was going to be the event wherein the Japanese developer would reveal the first game from his new development group, White Owl Inc. However, it appears that things have not gone entirely to plan.
Swery’s next game, entitled ‘The Good Life,’ can now be seen on Fig, a site that operates very much as a video game-focused Kickstarter. Notably, the game’s campaign is currently in pre-launch status and is scheduled to take off roughly around the time of Swery’s panel at PAX.
Considering Swery had been purposely dodging questions about his mysterious new reveal at PAX, it’s likely that this early appearance was unintentional. This idea is backed up by a tweet that Swery posted to his personal Twitter account:
Who is the leaker? Who broke my PR plan? Nevermind. It’s ok at the end. Because everybody love #TheGoodLife #pancake pic.twitter.com/MZP2490yu8
— HidetakaSwerySuehiro (@Swery65) 16 August 2017
As for the game itself, its premise is reminiscent of one of Swery’s most notable titles, Deadly Premonition. The setting is in a rural town (this time in a non-disclosed area of England rather than America), and the player controls an out-of-towner that investigates a bizarre and disturbing murder case.
The Good Life sets itself apart by the fact that the player controls a female photographer who’s probably not as crazy as Deadly Premonition’s York, as well as the fact everyone keeps turning into cats. Apparently, every single resident of the sleepy town of Rainy Woods turns into some kind of feline as soon as night strikes for reasons that aren’t entirely clear. Nobody seems to mind, and in fact it might be a contributing factor to why the place is the self-proclaimed “happiest town in the world.”
Controlling the intrepid investigator, Naomi, who has been stranded in Rainy Woods since discovering a murdered girl, the player must find out the secret behind the town’s strange transformations and find the killer. It’s worth noting that Naomi will also turn into a cat come sundown and will need to use this to her advantage if she hopes to uncover the town’s secret and get to the bottom of the murder.
The Good Life’s Fig campaign will launch September 3rd. It is currently unknown what platforms it will be releasing on. The first trailer can be viewed here.
