Get Drawn into the Paper Snowscape of ‘Mundaun’
This year’s GDC was great for smaller developers and indie games. One such studio is the Switzerland-based Hidden Fields, who showcased their unconventional horror adventure game Mundaun. What’s immediately striking about the game is its unique visual style. The game is almost entirely hand-drawn. All the textures used are individually drawn, with in-game shading added over the top, making it feel like you’ve stepped into a paper world.
Set in the snowy mountainous region of Mundaun in the heart of the Swiss Alps, the game’s storyline and source of horror are based on Swiss folklore. According to the game’s official website:
“After learning of his grandfathers mysterious death in a fire, Curdin travels to Mundaun for the first time since childhood. He will soon discover that something old and diabolical is haunting the remaining inhabitants. His odyssey up Mundaun mountain will take him from steep meadows across stony fields and to the snow-covered peak.”
Mundaun started out as a passion project for Hidden Fields’ founder Michel Ziegler, who is also an illustrator. While the they’ve cut their teeth creating smaller sidescrolling games, Mundaun will be the first game the studio releases.
The greyscale visuals really sell the game’s unsettling vibe and being set in a mountainous area there’s a ton of white, giving the world a brightness uncommon in most horror games. The few monsters we get to see in the trailer are genuinely creepy. Lumpy and shambling, their design is one of the more obviously folklore-influenced elements.
Maundaun has a lot in common with other adventure horror games like Amnesia: The Dark Descent, which place emphasis on exploring environments, investigating and interacting with as many elements and characters as you can. The game offers plenty of puzzles, which you’ll need to solve to continue further into the story.
Mundaun is set to come out in late 2018 on PC and Xbox One. The team behind the game are eager to share progress on their official site, where they regularly update their blog with new developments in design and gameplay.