The next game from the creator of Deadly Premonition and D4, Hidetaka “Swery” Suehiro, is a role-playing game set in a rural English town whose residents turn into cats at night. It’s called The Good Life and is the first game from Swery’s new studio, White Owls.
The Good Life is set in the town of Rainy Woods — that was the working title of Swery’s Deadly Premonition, by the way — and stars Naomi, a photographer from New York who discovers the town’s “very bizarre secret.”
Here’s the game’s official story description:
At night, all of the town's residents turn into cats. Why does this happen? Is this why everyone in town is so happy? No one seems to remember what they do at night. Naomi is here to find out what's going on in Rainy Woods.
The townspeople aren't the only ones who get to roam around at night as a cat - Naomi does too! Once the sun sets, you'll get to explore Rainy Woods and collect clues and important items connected to the events of the story. The town becomes a very different place at night, as certain secret paths, rooftops, and attics can only be accessed by cats.
According to Swery, The Good Life “will inherit the spirit of Deadly Premonition, my most representative work, but it will also feature a brand new style of gameplay.” He calls the mystery game a kind of “daily life RPG.”
“I'm positive that the happiest town in the world and the most bizarre townspeople in the world will capture your heart and pull you deep into their world,” Swery said in an email about the game’s announcement. “I'm sure this game will make a lot of people happy!”
Swery and White Owls are bringing The Good Life to crowdfunding platform Fig. The campaign for the game will go live Sept. 2. In the meantime, here’s a sneak peek at the game’s logo and a piece of artwork, via Fig’s email about the campaign.