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 specific emphasis on sturdy 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 strategy our video games at Hilltop: character, timing, and a very good dramatic reveal go a good distance. Our debut, Lil’ Guardsman, was a comedic fantasy gate-guard simulator a few twelve-year-old put accountable for a citadel gate, with the destiny of the world in her palms.
For our follow-up, Curse of Resthaven, we determined to take a unique 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 research a city stuffed with secrets and techniques, maintain its financial system working, and enterprise into the unusual wilderness past its borders. You’ve six days to work with earlier than catastrophe strikes and the island resets. Thankfully, you get to maintain what you be taught.
Fixing the thriller is simply step one. You’ll quickly uncover there are three completely 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 profit from your subsequent loop, listed below are a number of suggestions that will help you get began.
A Few Easy Ideas
Curse of Resthaven is a sport about connecting the dots. Its methods feed into each other, and the most effective discoveries usually come from combining info gathered in numerous methods. Right here are some things to bear in mind as you examine the island.
- Speak to everybody, after which discuss 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 matters you deliver up, and what has occurred in the course of the present loop. If a personality isn’t being useful, you could merely have to be taught a bit of extra earlier than approaching them. Your journal will be counted on to let you recognize when to ask somebody about one thing once more.
- Concentrate throughout interrogations. You may query characters about completely different matters to uncover clues, advance quests, and be taught extra concerning the island. Data gathered from one resident might unlock the subject wanted to maneuver the needle with one other. For those who’re caught, revisit folks you’ve spoken to and see whether or not they have a perspective on newly acquired matters or, higher but, can information you in the proper path.
- Don’t deal with buying and selling as a aspect exercise. As governor, Ambrose is accountable for protecting Resthaven’s financial system shifting. Service provider ships deliver items to purchase and promote, whereas the island’s companies will be upgraded to supply helpful sources. Cash is barely a part of the equation: having the proper sources is crucial for pursuing alternatives elsewhere, together with expeditions into the wilderness.
- Experiment along with your strategy. Not each drawback has an apparent answer, and never each promising lead will repay instantly. Strive completely different approaches, pursue sudden conversations, and see the place your investigations take you. Even a botched loop might train you one thing helpful for the following 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 typical routines, however Ambrose retains his data and development. That distinction is all the things.
You aren’t anticipated to resolve all the thriller in a single move. As a substitute, every loop provides you one other alternative to use what you’ve realized, strategy outdated issues in a different way, and uncover info that was beforehand out of attain.
- Data is your most beneficial useful resource. A personality who refuses to cooperate on Day 1 is perhaps far more forthcoming when you’ve found what motivates them. An apparently not possible impediment may develop into easy as soon as you recognize the proper particular person to speak to or the proper query to ask.
- Plan your days round what you wish to be taught. There are extra folks 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 it’s important to depart one thing for subsequent time.
- Use every reset as a possibility. When the island resets, you may take a unique strategy with the advantage of all the things you’ve found. You don’t should repeat the identical actions simply since you did them final time. For those who already know the place a specific lead goes, spend that point pursuing one thing new.
The aim isn’t merely to repeat the identical six days till you get all the things proper. It’s to make use of what you realized final time to vary what occurs the following 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 means of 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 a different way from one try and the following. You’ll face selections, uncover unusual occasions, and encounter alternatives that won’t seem once more in your subsequent journey.
- Anticipate the sudden. Expeditions aren’t mounted sequences of occasions. The encounters you uncover on one outing could also be very completely different from these on one other, so keep curious and be ready to adapt.
- Don’t assume you’ve seen all the things. There are extra encounters than you’ll expertise in a single run. Returning to the wilderness on subsequent playthroughs can reveal totally 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 sources you collect can assist you make progress elsewhere, so think about how an expedition may assist your different objectives.
Discover Each Nook Of Resthaven
It’s price taking the time to go searching. Past the primary investigation, Resthaven comprises optionally available 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 may barely take a single step in the event you rely closely on the helpful city map + quick journey performance, however you’ll actually miss out on some optionally available, flavourful aspect content material. Give your self permission to wander a bit of. In spite of everything, in Resthaven you don’t have anything however time (in six-day intervals)!
And don’t be afraid to revisit acquainted locations. As you be taught extra concerning 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 good friend. Examine your lively leads for hints about what to pursue subsequent. For those who’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 most likely let you know so!
Your journal has one other trick up its sleeve, too. After the opening hours, you’ll unlock a timeline displaying vital occasions throughout the six-day loop and the place they happen. For those who’re stumped by a “???” on the timeline, it means one thing vital is going on at that second you haven’t found but. To progress, you may simply have to be in the proper place on the proper time.
The city map is one other easy-to-miss useful resource. It exhibits 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 on the lookout for somebody new.
Lastly, don’t underestimate the facility of a bit of group gossip. Some leads require interrogation, however the reply may merely be to ask the townspeople a few specific subject. Resthaven is a small, tight-knit group, and data has a manner 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 gained’t see these phrases in-game.)
- Bronze clues offer you a bit of info and nudge you in the proper path, and lots of townspeople have them
- Silver clues provide extra particular particulars and produce you nearer to the reality; fewer townspeople have them
- Gold clues unambiguously reveal the following step in a lead. Just one or two townspeople have them
Comply with the path, and also you shouldn’t be omitted within the chilly for lengthy.
Don’t Fear About Seeing Every little thing the First Time
Curse of Resthaven options three branching timelines, every revealing completely different items of the bigger thriller. You gained’t essentially encounter each quest or revelation throughout a single playthrough, and that’s intentional.
As you progress, you’ll uncover new info that modifications the way you perceive the island and its folks. Some discoveries will reply questions, whereas others will depart you with much more to research.
When you’ve accomplished a timeline, New Sport+ introduces Ambrose’s rising sense of déjà vu, permitting you to fast-track by means of content material you’ve already skilled and give attention to what’s completely different. You may 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. Concentrate, observe the leads that curiosity you, and let your rising data information you thru the following loop.
Resthaven has an ideal 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 probably 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 deliver, 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 along 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 price.
Each loop reveals new truths about Resthaven, the forces looking for to manage the island’s energy, and your niece’s function 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 completely 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.
