Toronto-based indie developer Hilltop Studios has launched a Steam demo for its upcoming game, Curse of Resthaven, as part of Six One Indies Demo Days.
It’s the Canadian team’s follow-up to its acclaimed 2024 colourful fantasy deduction adventure Lil’ Guardsman, but it’s a marked departure from that. Instead, Curse of Resthaven is a gothic horror roguelike in which you play as a governor who searches for his missing niece while trying to protect his island colony from supernatural threats.
I previewed the demo and came away really impressed so far. With a timeloop narrative featuring branching paths, a deck-building system, town management and a rich, hand-drawn graphic novel aesthetic, Curse of Resthaven is shaping up quite nicely. In particular, the dialogue is well-written and the cast (which is made up of local Toronto actors) is really strong. It’s also worth noting that key members of the Hilltop team have a background in the performing arts, and you can see that on full display if you visit the tavern and listen to the bard sing. (Warning: it’s a very catchy original song.)
You can download the demo on Steam. Curse of Resthaven doesn’t yet have a release date, but Hilltop is aiming to launch the game sometime later this year.
For more on the game, check out our interview with Hilltop earlier this year. In it, the team gave valuable insight into the tonal and stylistic shift from Lil’ Guardsman, the overlap between comedy and horror, how their performing arts background informs their approach to game development, and more.
Image credit: Hilltop Studios
