Saturnalia Welcome the new moon

Like anyone suffering in this ridiculous heat this summer, I often think of other seasons where I don’t have to worry about sunscreen or wearing a silly hat. Saturnalia is a Roman festival celebrated around mid-December to celebrate the new moon gracing our skies. It’s also a horror game coming later this year by indie developer Santa Ragione and published by The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild! Saturnalia is a survival horror adventure game heavily inspired by Sardinian folklore where you are tasked to traverse the city and discover the many secrets that it holds.

The first thing that caught my eye about this game is its striking look. Saturnalia has almost a sketched artistic style both on the environments and the characters. The team at Santa Ragione have also used stop motion and rotoscoping film techniques to deliver such an impactful visual design. Instead of lives, you have 4 characters, each with their own special ability, which is a great way to make the decisions you make feel a bit more permanent. Should all the characters die though, the maze-like city will reconfigure itself to a brand new layout, making no two journeys the same.

As well as scarce lives, you have to wisely use a limited supply of matches to light your way through this ever-changing labyrinth and to fight back against the darkness. All while trying to solve puzzles, discover character-specific narratives, or use tools to open new shortcuts, it really provides that non-linear progression that goes hand in hand with this type of genre. While we don’t have a definitive date on this, we’re hopeful for a 2021 release on PC via the Epic Games Store and Steam.