It isn’t every day that a developer gets a second crack at their first abandoned project. That’s what’s happening with Yuppie Psycho devs Baroque Decay Games, though, as they revisit their horror RPG Catechesis.
The game first started in 2012 with its sights set on a modest mobile horror experience. Anyone who has ever worked on anything creative knows how easy it is to get carried away, though. What began as a mashup of concepts inspired by Resident Evil and adventure games like Five Days a Stranger — with the lo-fi restraint of something like The Legend of PicoHERO — fell prey to overambitious scoping.
Catechesis soon expanded beyond the limits of mobile and continued to grow from there. Eventually, after regularly revealing new characters, maps, and other additional content, the candles of this particular black magic ritual were prematurely extinguished. It’s all meticulously detailed in the first devlog for the new version of Catechesis.
Renewed Ritual
The cancellation of the original Catechesis wasn’t all bad. Some of the concepts made their way into Baroque Decay’s first finished game, 2016’s The Count Lucanor. That black magic can also be found in 2019’s Yuppie Psycho, which was a huge success for the team. Now, a decade after its first trailer debuted, Baroque Decay is ready to bring the full vision of Catechesis to fruition. With more experience under their belts, the team is revisiting their first attempt at development with fresh eyes and a keener sense of what not to do in the process.
As a result, both the game’s story and overall design are being revamped for the new version. Some of the core ideas and questions remain, and the story still follows the studious Daniel. After being bitten by a strange mosquito one day, Daniel begins to acquire powers… at a hefty cost. Catechesis has players balancing Daniel’s daily responsibilities at school and as an altar boy with nightly battles against demons. Daniel can do so from a distance with his blood gun and up close with his knife, rolling away to avoid deadly attacks. Stealth adds another level of tension to the proceedings, as enemies react to Daniel’s flashlight and the sound of his footsteps.
Like previous Baroque Decay games, the music of Michael “Garoad” Kelly (VA-11 Hall-A) will further fuel the survival horror soundscape. An EP featuring five exclusive tracks from the game is already available. As for the release date, there isn’t one yet. While development is “going at a good pace,” we’ll have to wait for further details on the PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PC release plans. For now, Baroque Decay just wants everyone to wishlist Catechesis on Steam and stay tuned for “many surprises in the future.”
