Bramble: The Mountain King is a new indie horror based on terrifying Nordic folklore

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Inspired by "the nature, fables, and fairy tales of the Nordics"

A friendly-looking troll looks down on the boy frolicking in the tall, tall grass
(Image credit: Dimfrost Studio)

Swedish developer Dimfrost Studios has announced a new horror adventure game called Bramble: The Mountain King.

Accompanying the announcement is a trailer that shows off the game's style and animation, including "atmospheric environments, high-end graphics, cinematic moments, and casual gameplay", which shows the boy leaping across gigantic lilypads and waving to a huge, if seemingly friendly, troll.

Here's a delightful little teaser:

Inspired by "the nature, fables, and fairy tales of the Nordics", Bramble: The Mountain King – which is scheduled to release next year on PC and console – sees the boy "befriend curious and strange spirits", not all of which will be friendly to our lost travelers. 

"Bramble: The Mountain King is a horror adventure set inside the world of Nordic fables filled with gnomes, trolls, and other creatures," explains the video description. "You are a young boy lost in a magical fantasy world together with your elder sister. Soon after arriving, your sister is kidnapped by a monstrous troll, and you end up alone on a perilous journey to find her and save yourself.

"Without his older sister and role model, the shy boy is lost," a press release adds. "He needs to find strength inside of him in order to face all the horror and monsters ahead of him. When he embarks on this journey to reunite with his sister, he also unravels a dark curse that has sickened the world. He soon realizes that something dangerous is lurking in the shadows below the mountains."

For now, there's not much else to go on, but the teaser is certainly intriguing, not least because it frequently cuts back to the small boy continually stabbing something bloody in the chest… Yikes.

That's not the only horror news we've had this announcement-packed weekend, of course. Yesterday, we learned of a new expansion coming to World War Z – World War Z: Aftermath – which includes an all-new first-person mode. We also got a fresh look at the psychological thriller Martha Is Dead, too.

Here are our tips for the very best horror games.

Vikki Blake
Vikki Blake
Weekend Reporter, GamesRadar+

Vikki Blake is GamesRadar+'s Weekend Reporter. Vikki works tirelessly to ensure that you have something to read on the days of the week beginning with 'S', and can also be found contributing to outlets including the BBC, Eurogamer, and GameIndustry.biz. Vikki also runs a weekly games column at NME, and can be frequently found talking about Destiny 2 and Silent Hill on Twitter.