Gaming IndustryGame Development’Cozy exploration meets true crime' on horseback is the MMO I didn’t know I wantedWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

Gaming IndustryGame Development’Cozy exploration meets true crime' on horseback is the MMO I didn’t know I wantedWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Blue Scarab)

Blue Scarab game image of a cabin in a field surrounded by police tape at sundown

To coincide with the opening announcement, the team has shared some details of its first project and revealed it’s already well underway. Although the vast majority of details about it—such as a final name or even a codename—are scarce, we can start piecing together what to expect. Built in Unreal Engine 5, the story-driven MMORPG will be “cozy exploration meets true crime.” Which is a sentence I never thought I’d say.

Within the game, players will be able to explore an open world on horseback, which is pretty exciting to me, someone who spent hundreds of hours experiencing Red Dead Redemption 2 as a horse-riding simulator. Alongside the self-proclaimed “cozy exploration,” the game will also challenge us to unearth a dark mystery which, I’ll admit, I thought was assumed given the “true crime” theming.

In the announcement post, studio director Craig Morrison says he believes, “there is space for fusing and evolving previous gaming and media experiences into something new and fresh for this expanded community.”

With how many talented developers there are involved in Blue Scarab’s first project, I’m incredibly excited to see how it plays out. Although I’d never thought to combine true crime and cozy games, it could be an exciting combination, and become a basis for more games along the same lines, especially with ‘cozy’ gaming on the rise at the moment. Games with a more comforting feel have become pretty sought-after for a huge number of players (including me), so it’s definitely the time to release another, slightly different game into the mix.

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I’m keen to keep an eye on the development of Blue Scarab’s first project, but more excited to see how the studio grows now it’s in the public eye. Taking a refreshing new direction in a somewhat oversaturated genre, and with so many talented people behind it, could mean good things for the studio’s future. I, for one, will be in line ready to play the comforting crime game when it does launch, and depending on how many hours I sink into horse riding this time around, probably for the next one too.

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Yakuza/Like a Dragon creator Toshihiro Nagoshi says his studio’s new game won’t be that big after all: ‘it’s not modern to have similar experiences repeated over and over again’

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A man with a sausage-shaped head

‘Calm down!’ says Facepunch Studios: Garry’s Mod successor s&box is getting a fan-requested sandbox mode and an alternative to ‘Sausage Men’

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Mister Fantastic mid ultimate

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