One of Summer Game Fest's opening night highlights was Blumhouse's spooktacular horror showcase, which included a creepy spin on Stardew Valley – Grave Seasons.
With a penchant for all things cozy and hundreds of hours in Stardew Valley, I've been hoping for a new farming sim with some flair that other titles of the genre don't have - and now my dreams have seemingly come true. During last night's horror lineup from Blumhouse, indie developer Perfect Garbage debuted its upcoming farming game Grave Seasons. It isn't your run-of-the-mill wholesome farm experience, however.
Grave Seasons leans into a flavor of farming sim I've never quite seen before - scary. While the game does feature all of the Stardew-esque essentials like crop-tending and romance, it also boasts... "supernatural serial killers." Yes, you read that right - when you're harvesting yummy vegetables, mysterious figures with murderous intent might be harvesting innocent peoples' organs elsewhere in town.
The game, which Perfect Garbage describes as featuring a "dynamic narrative," is set in "a charming pixelated town with a terribly dark secret." You can catch a quick glimpse of this horrible secret during Grave Seasons' trailer - a shadowy killer emerges from the night to brutally murder an unsuspecting woman, leaving her bloodied and dismembered corpse behind in the woods. The contrast between this final fleeting scene and the rest of the trailer's footage of dialogue, exploration, and farming is notable, to say the least.
I never thought I'd see my passion for true crime and love of cutesy gaming come together, but here we are. There's sadly no release date for Grave Seasons just yet, but you can join the developer's official Discord for updates. Perfect Garbage says that there are various features we've not seen yet as "the game is currently still in early development," so there's likely to be more news in the near future.
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