This Blumhouse-published cozy horror mashup could launch before Emberville, and I'm ready to get spooked

It's been a good long while since Blumhouse Games announced plans to publish Grave Seasons, a game that gleefully (or gloomily, for the goths out there) brings a little sliver of horror and suspense to the cozy game genre. Now, thanks to a Nintendo indie showcase of all things, we know it's set to cross the finish line soon. Well, soon-ish. Grave Seasons is slated to launch this Summer, which makes it a little awkward given the long, long hours of sunlight.

Though the release date is still a little vague, it's good to know that Grave Seasons, one of my most-anticipated relaxing life games, is set to land right around the time I do what I can to spend the most productive hours of the day roasting myself in the garden. We don't get a lot of sun here outside of summer (even then, it's a rare sight for the gloomy grey skies), but at least I won't lament the moment it's time to go back inside once it sets: I'll have a cool new game to play. Better yet, perhaps it's the perfect Steam Deck title to enjoy by the fire pit - Goosebumps-style.

Grave Seasons pitches itself as a narrative farming sim with "a terrifying twist." There's a supernatural serial killer stalking the streets of Ashenridge. It's Midsummer Murders, where you harvest crops by day and search for clues by night. Just be careful who you romance: you might find them in your compost heap the next day. If that sounds like your jam, there's a good chance it'll launch before its closest competitors. And going by Jamie's preview of Grave Seasons at Summer Game Fest last year, it's well worth getting into the weeds with this one.

If this happens to be the first time you've heard of Grave Seasons, I don't blame you. After all, with a few other darker life sims due out this year - namely Emberville and Neverway - there being little activity on the Grave Seasons Steam page since October ran the risk of the game beginning to fade into obscurity, despite being published by one of the leading Hollywood horror houses. 

Oh, while we're here, can I just moan about how the majority of the cinema screenings these days are horror movies? Clearly, there's a massive audience for it, and Weapons was an incredible flick, but I'll be damned if I'd rather watch something like Crime 101 in the early afternoon versus another iconic franchise revival or a largely forgettable low-budget slasher. Actually, Crime 101 was a bit of a bore, but that's the last time I managed to make it out there.

Anyway, word of Grave Seasons' slightly clearer release window dropped barely 24 hours after the title hit a whopping 400,000 wishlists. And despite coming from a studio called Perfect Garbage, it looks like just the sort of shake-up the cozy game genre could do with right now. I can't remember where I heard it recently, but apparently a good percentage of cozy game streamers have horror games as their next go-to genre: chill by day, scream by night? Honestly, it works just as well the other way around. The point is that the genres contrast each other, so games like Grave Seasons putting the two together makes perfect sense.