Stardew Valley changed the face of gaming and brought with it to the forefront life and farming sims. Since then we’ve gotten a whole host of similar farming games. Games where you farm as a witch, games where you farm on an island, and even a game where you farm as a vampire. Now Grave Seasons by Perfect Garbage brings you all the joy of Stardew Valley but with a sinister twist.

The townsfolk of any life sim game is one of the best aspects. You can make friends, get to know their life and even romance some of them. But in Grave Seasons, it turns out one of those friendly faces is a murderer.

The peaceful town you’ve left your city life for is plagued by a serial killer. Your neighbours are on edge and every interaction you have is just a little bit… odd. Eventually, you’ll be able to find clues, discover patterns and hopefully solve the person behind these killings. Watch out because you can even accidentally romance the killer.

Find The Killer

Welcome to Grave Seasons where the sun is hot but the bodies are cold. The game picks up pretty quickly when you arrive, with the death of the town’s mayor. Was it just an accident? Or is this the start of a murderous killing spree?

Small-town drama is the best and everyone is looking just a little bit shifty. So armed with your handy-dandy notebook to keep track of your investigation, you can begin. Get to know your neighbours, and find out their lives and motivations. The murderer is chosen at random at the start of the game, meaning a new adventure every time you restart. Talk to the people of the town to get hints and who knows, maybe the killer will even slip up.

While hunting for the serial killer you also have a farm to look after. That and fishing and maybe even animal care are all things you’ll need to do. But I’d act quickly because the next murder in town could be yours.

Developers Perfect Garbage have yet to reveal much about this game but in their description, the murders are linked to the “supernatural”. Could there just be one murderer amongst us? Or could it be a cult? What are their motivations? This is giving very Strange Horticulture vibes (a Lovecraftian plant shop sim).

Grave Seasons

Grave Season is a narrative-driven farming sim/life sim that follows you, an outsider, making a new home for yourself in a small village. As you farm, fish, and begin your new, peaceful life in town, you find that the residents are a little odd… and that there’s a serial killer on the loose. If you don’t want your hard-earned serenity to be ruined, you must solve these supernatural murders and find the culprit before it’s too late.

Grave Seasons has no official release date as of now but you can follow the dev’s Twitter here.