The director of Deadly Premonition, the world’s worst best game, has launched a crowdfunding campaign for his next game. Hidetaka ‘Swery’ Suehiro has split from Access Games and founded his own studio to make The Good Life [Fig page], a murder-mystery daily life RPG set in an English village — the happiest in the world, the locals will tell you — where everyone turns into a cat at night. Yup. Playing as a debt-laden photographer by day and cat by night, maybe we’ll solve the many mysteries of Rainy Woods. I’m well up for that.

We’ll head into Rainy Woods as Naomi, a photographer from New York working to pay off debt. She discovers the daughter of the village priest stabbed and floating like Millais’ Ophelia, and so begins to investigate the murder and the village, earning cash for her snaps along the way. It’s divided into days and seasons, with villagers following their own routines and Naomi meandering through it getting to know people and taking valuable photos.

Oh, everyone in the village becomes a cat at night, able to reach otherwise-inaccessible places. That’s another mystery to solve.



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My favourite bits of Deadly Premonition were poking around the town while getting to know people and earning cash in strange ways (remember to shave!), so a game which focuses on that without any combat sounds wonderful.

White Owls are seeking $1,500,000 (£1.16m) on Fig for The Good Life, hoping to finish the game for the end of 2019. To remind you, Fig is a crowdfunding site founded chiefly by game developers. As well as regular Kickstarter/Indiegogo-style pledging, it lets accredited investors actually invest to potentially receive a return on their cash. Pledge-wise, chucking in at least $29 would get you a copy of the finished game.