Strange Scaffold’s disturbing kidnapping sim Life Eater is out in April

El Paso, Elsewhere developer Strange Scaffold has announced a five-game deal with publisher Frosty Pop. As part of the announcement, they’ve revealed a trailer for their next game, Life Eater, which is out on April 16, 2024.

I find this trailer rather unsettling.

The trailer shows off the game’s timeline interface where you must learn the habits and schedule of your quarry so that you may find the opportunity to abduct them. You play as a “modern day druid” who is tasked with performing an annual sacrificial ritual to delay the end of the world. It looks like once you have your quarry, you then take their organs to “water the flower.”

Life Eater looks to be a rather evocative game. It has you violate the lives of others while framed as someone performing a necessary evil. Just the fact that you’re learning intimate details of the lives of others and monitoring them for the moment to strike is rather discomforting. The information on the game even suggests that the whole “dark god” angle might be false. I’d play it.

The store page promises “replayable blend of authored and generated stories.” It features music from David Mason who was the composer of Dredge.

As an aside, there are modern-day Druids, as Druidry is a modern religion based on pagan cultures. I don’t think they generally converse with dark gods and perform sacrifices. Just weird to see that as a contextual descriptor.

Life Eater releases on PC on April 16, 2024.