Hello there! I’m Scott Christian, the studio director of Hilltop Studios right here in Toronto, and the sport director of Curse of Resthaven. We make video games with a selected emphasis on robust characters, intricate storytelling, distinctive mechanics, and the occasional musical interlude.
Earlier than making video games, I spent fifteen years working as a composer and conductor right here in Toronto, primarily in theatre. That background informs how we method our video games at Hilltop: character, timing, and a very good dramatic reveal go a great distance. Our debut, Lil’ Guardsman, was a comedic fantasy gate-guard simulator a couple of twelve-year-old put in command of a fortress gate, with the destiny of the world in her palms.
For our follow-up, Curse of Resthaven, we determined to take a distinct flip into gothic horror, creeping dread, and a thriller that unfolds over a repeating six-day time loop. You play as Ambrose, the island’s newly appointed governor, tasked with restoring prosperity to the colony however he additionally has his personal agenda: discovering his lacking niece, Amalia. The issue is that Resthaven is destroyed six days into his tenure… and Ambrose is distributed again to the day of his arrival, the one one to recollect the island’s destiny.
Mashing up mechanics from narrative adventures, buying and selling sims, deckbuilders, and roguelikes, Curse of Resthaven challenges you to analyze a city filled with secrets and techniques, maintain its economic system working, and enterprise into the unusual wilderness past its borders. You have got six days to work with earlier than catastrophe strikes and the island resets. Fortuitously, you get to maintain what you study.
Fixing the thriller is simply step one. You’ll quickly uncover there are three totally different timelines to discover, and solely by reaching all three conclusions will you unlock the fourth, true ending.
Whether or not you’re stepping onto Resthaven for the primary time or trying to benefit from your subsequent loop, listed below are a number of ideas that can assist you get began.
A Few Easy Ideas
Curse of Resthaven is a recreation about connecting the dots. Its programs feed into each other, and the most effective discoveries usually come from combining data gathered in several methods. Right here are some things to bear in mind as you examine the island.
Speak to everybody, after which speak to them once more. Resthaven’s residents have their very own motivations, grudges, and secrets and techniques. What somebody tells you relies on what Ambrose already is aware of, what subjects you carry up, and what has occurred in the course of the present loop. If a personality isn’t being useful, chances are you’ll merely have to study somewhat extra earlier than approaching them. Your journal could be counted on to let you already know when to ask somebody about one thing once more.
Listen throughout interrogations. You possibly can query characters about totally different subjects to uncover clues, advance quests, and study extra in regards to the island. Data gathered from one resident might unlock the subject wanted to maneuver the needle with one other. When you’re caught, revisit individuals you’ve spoken to and see whether or not they have a perspective on newly acquired subjects or, higher but, can information you in the precise course.
Don’t deal with buying and selling as a aspect exercise. As governor, Ambrose is answerable for holding Resthaven’s economic system shifting. Service provider ships carry items to purchase and promote, whereas the island’s companies could be upgraded to supply helpful assets. Cash is barely a part of the equation: having the precise assets is important for pursuing alternatives elsewhere, together with expeditions into the wilderness.
Experiment together with your method. Not each drawback has an apparent resolution, and never each promising lead will repay instantly. Strive totally different approaches, pursue surprising conversations, and see the place your investigations take you. Even a botched loop might educate you one thing helpful for the subsequent one.
Make the A lot of the Time Loop
The six-day time loop is on the coronary heart of Curse of Resthaven. Every loop begins with the island’s inhabitants returning to their common routines, however Ambrose retains his data and development. That distinction is every thing.
You aren’t anticipated to resolve the complete thriller in a single go. As an alternative, every loop provides you one other alternative to use what you’ve discovered, method previous issues in another way, and uncover data that was beforehand out of attain.
Data is your Most worthy useful resource. A personality who refuses to cooperate on Day 1 is perhaps rather more forthcoming when you’ve found what motivates them. An apparently unattainable impediment may grow to be easy as soon as you already know the precise particular person to speak to or the precise query to ask.
Plan your days round what you need to study. There are extra individuals to query, companies to handle, and locations to discover than you may essentially get to in a single loop. Deal with the leads that appear most promising, and don’t fear if you must depart one thing for subsequent time.
Use every reset as a chance. When the island resets, you may take a distinct method with the good thing about every thing you’ve found. You don’t need to repeat the identical actions simply since you did them final time. When you already know the place a selected lead goes, spend that point pursuing one thing new.
The objective isn’t merely to repeat the identical six days till you get every thing proper. It’s to make use of what you discovered final time to vary what occurs the subsequent time.
Enterprise Past the City
Past the protection of Resthaven’s fortified partitions lies a a lot stranger model of the island. Expeditions take Ambrose into this wilderness by a card-based narrative system that blends roguelikes, deckbuilders, and choose-your-own-adventure video games.
Every expedition attracts encounters from a pool, which means your journey can unfold in another way from one try to the subsequent. You’ll face choices, uncover unusual occasions, and encounter alternatives that won’t seem once more in your subsequent journey.
Count on the surprising. Expeditions aren’t mounted sequences of occasions. The encounters you uncover on one outing could also be very totally different from these on one other, so keep curious and be ready to adapt.
Don’t assume you’ve seen every thing. There are extra encounters than you’ll expertise in a single run. Returning to the wilderness on subsequent playthroughs can reveal fully new tales and discoveries.
Do not forget that expeditions are a part of the bigger investigation. The wilderness isn’t separate from the thriller unfolding on the town. Data and assets you collect can assist you make progress elsewhere, so think about how an expedition may help your different objectives.
Discover Each Nook Of Resthaven
It’s value taking the time to go searching. Past the primary investigation, Resthaven comprises elective discoveries, together with collectible moth relics and different secrets and techniques tucked away all through the city.
These discoveries reward gamers who aren’t in a rush. You possibly can barely take a single step should you rely closely on the helpful city map + quick journey performance, however you’ll definitely miss out on some elective, flavourful aspect content material. Give your self permission to wander somewhat. In any case, in Resthaven you don’t have anything however time (in six-day intervals)!
And don’t be afraid to revisit acquainted locations. As you study extra in regards to the colony and its inhabitants, places and conversations that appeared unremarkable at first might tackle new significance.
What To Do If You’re Caught
Your journal is your finest buddy. Test your energetic leads for hints about what to pursue subsequent. When you’ve exhausted all the chances on the town, it could be time to go again out on expeditions and search for Amalia’s campsites. And your journal will in all probability inform you so!
Your journal has one other trick up its sleeve, too. After the opening hours, you’ll unlock a timeline exhibiting essential occasions throughout the six-day loop and the place they happen. When you’re stumped by a “???” on the timeline, it means one thing essential is occurring at that second you haven’t found but. To progress, you may simply must be in the precise place on the proper time.
The city map is one other easy-to-miss useful resource. It reveals which characters are accessible in every zone at any given time. When you’ve spoken to a named NPC, their query mark turns into a portrait, making it a lot simpler to trace them down in subsequent loops. Nonetheless seeing a “?” in a zone? That is perhaps a very good place to start out in search of somebody new.
Lastly, don’t underestimate the ability of somewhat neighborhood gossip. Some leads require interrogation, however the reply may merely be to ask the townspeople a couple of explicit subject. Resthaven is a small, tight-knit neighborhood, and knowledge has a means of getting round.
We’ve designed the investigation round a path of clues(We’ve classed them as bronze/silver/gold behind the scenes, however you received’t see these phrases in-game.)
Bronze clues provide you with somewhat data and nudge you in the precise course, and lots of townspeople have them
Silver clues provide extra particular particulars and convey you nearer to the reality; fewer townspeople have them
Gold clues unambiguously reveal the subsequent step in a lead. Just one or two townspeople have them
Observe the path, and also you shouldn’t be unnoticed within the chilly for lengthy.
Don’t Fear About Seeing Every thing the First Time
Curse of Resthaven options three branching timelines, every revealing totally different items of the bigger thriller. You received’t essentially encounter each quest or revelation throughout a single playthrough, and that’s intentional.
As you progress, you’ll uncover new data that modifications the way you perceive the island and its individuals. Some discoveries will reply questions, whereas others will depart you with much more to analyze.
When you’ve accomplished a timeline, New Recreation+ introduces Ambrose’s rising sense of déjà vu, permitting you to fast-track by content material you’ve already skilled and give attention to what’s totally different. You possibly can spend much less time retracing acquainted steps and extra time exploring new potentialities.
So don’t fear about discovering each secret in your first go to. Listen, comply with the leads that curiosity you, and let your rising data information you thru the subsequent loop.
Resthaven has an important many secrets and techniques. The trick is determining which of them to pursue, when to pursue them, and what to do with what you uncover.
Six days stay. Good luck, Governor. You’ll want it.
Curse of Resthaven launches October 29 for XBOX Collection X|S and XBOX on PC.
Curse of Resthaven
Digital Bandidos
$19.99
Resthaven is cursed. Your niece has vanished. And in seven days, the island will likely be destroyed.
Curse of Resthaven is a single-player narrative roguelite the place investigation, city administration, buying and selling, deck constructing, and branching expeditions mix right into a darkish thriller of survival and consequence.
Take command of the cursed island colony of Resthaven after your niece disappears on the eve of disaster. Govern the city, interrogate suspicious locals, commerce with visiting retailers, improve very important companies, and resolve who — or what — to belief because the island’s secrets and techniques start to floor.
Past the protection of Resthaven’s partitions, you’ll ship card-driven expeditions into the island’s wilderness. Construct a deck of useful resource and companion playing cards, select who to carry, resolve what to hold, and put together for unpredictable encounters with eldritch horrors.
The cataclysm is available in simply seven days. When destruction strikes, the island’s fading guardian intervenes, sending you again to the second of your arrival together with your recollections and expertise intact. Every loop presents new data, everlasting upgrades, and harmful blessings from the island’s goddess — however each benefit might include a value.
Each loop reveals new truths about Resthaven, the forces in search of to regulate the island’s energy, and your niece’s position in what’s unfolding. Interrogate over 25 totally voiced characters, uncover their motives and secrets and techniques, and piece collectively a thriller formed by mythology, historical past, and cosmic dread.
With a number of main narrative paths and randomized expeditions, each playthrough exposes totally different items of the puzzle. Solely by mastering the city, surviving the island, and understanding the time loop are you able to hope to interrupt the curse.
