Hidetaka Suehiro, known to fans as Swery65 or Swery, is quite the eclectic game designer. He’s responsible for the creative direction of Deadly Premonition - the best terrible game with a Twin Peaks vibe ever made - as well as D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die - a Kinect game about a time-traveling detective. Now, he's back with a new studio and a game about one of his greatest loves in life:
Cats.
The Good Life is an RPG about a New York photographer named Naomi. Searching for a way to pay off her debts, she arrives in a small town in rural England. The town is known as the happiest place in the world, but something strange is going on: at night, the townsfolk (and Naomi) transform into cats. Actual cats. Uncovering why this happens will be one of your major goals, and you'll need to utilize the skills of both an agile feline and a bipedal ape with opposable thumbs to solve the mystery.
Swery writes, "This game will inherit the spirit of Deadly Premonition, my most representative work, but it will also feature a brand new style of gameplay. It's a mystery game based on the framework of a '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."
Back in April, Eurogamer sat down with Swery to discuss his new studio and his upcoming projects. The auteur was tight-lipped, but said via translator that he and his team were working on something "perverted, violent and crazy."
That sounds a bit darker than this new pitch, and may not even be referring to The Good Life, but keep in mind Swery is currently writing a mystery novel about a murder in a rural England town, told from the perspective of a cat. He has experience blending the grisly with the absurd. Who knows? Maybe it's all connected. With Swery, anything's possible.
We'll find out more when the Fig crowdfunding campaign for The Good Life goes live on September 2.
