Demo delivered for Sons of Saturn

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Narrative-driven, old-school slideshow horror adventure coming later this year to Windows, Mac and Linux

It can be hard returning to the places in our lives that have scarred us and left us haunted, particularly when we still carry the trauma of those experiences with us. This imposing reality is the physical and psychological challenge that awaits in the upcoming old-school horror adventure, Sons of Saturn.

Players control an "inexplicably muscular" 26-year-old woman named Amelie, who awakens from a surreal dream to discover that she's lying face up in a wastewater tunnel, goaded to get up by a "snarky antique" stuffed doll named Jasper. Accompanied by an unnamed man known only as the Ferryman, you must return to the abandoned undergroud city of Minerva, a "technological metropolis where the dead dream and memories cling to life." You were born in this terrible place before finally fleeing, never wanting to look back, but in the escape you were forced to leave your mother behind. Now it's time to confront your past by re-entering the city to find out what happened to her in your absence, an investigation that will expose "both the cause of your pain and the warts that have colonized your brain."

The environments of Sons of Saturn are based on treated photographs of real-world locations taken by the game's primary developer and "urban explorer" Charles Lawson, including "abandoned asylums and industrial sites all over the world." Gameplay is a mix of first-person point-and-click slideshow adventuring and text-driven visual novel, with dialogue and player choices displayed along the right side of the screen. The focus here is on "atmosphere and narrative" over challenging puzzles, intended to evoke a sense of "both wonder and horror" as you explore Minerva in search of clues and information to your mother's fate. But as you progress, you'll soon discover that it's a journey of self-discovery too, requiring you to delve deep into your own psyche along the way.

There is no firm target release date, but Sons of Saturn is on pace to be completed sometime before the end of this year on Steam for Windows, Mac and Linux. In the meantime, a playable demo will offer an early taste of what to expect, but you'd better act fast as it will only be available for a limited time.

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