Playable prologue offers glimpse of Spirit of Midnight

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Supernatural cartoon animal adventure coming to PC and Nintendo Switch later this year

Ever wonder what animals do in the forest at night when no one's looking? The answer might surprise you, at least when it comes to Good Badger's upcoming cartoon adventure, Spirit of Midnight.

It's late at night when a domesticated little house cat creeps downstairs to discover that "some sort of spirit is rummaging through the refrigerator." Startled, the spirit drops a peculiar glowing orb before disappearing. As curious as the next cat, the young feline touches the orb and is suddenly "overcome by a strong energy that instantly enlightens his mind." With his newfound ability to talk and walk on two legs, the cat opens the front door and finds "the outside world now freely available to him for the first time in his life." Over the course of one night, the intrepid kitty will set out on a supernatural adventure to collect more scattered orbs in an attempt to "restore balance to the forest and uncover the truth behind its mysteries," making friends with a badger and meeting many other wild creatures along the way.

Spirit of Midnight is presented in a simple but charming cartoon art style with a "nighttime aesthetic and color palette." It may function much like a point-and-click adventure but the game is controlled by either keyboard or gamepad as you guide the furry protagonist through the "vast coastal property" somewhere in present-day England. As you interact with the other forest denizens, whether cute and cuddly or slimy and slithery, you'll need to collect items, solve puzzles and perform fetch quests to earn their favour if you're to gain access to "secret places unknown to humans." It's very much intended to be a child-friendly experience with relaxed gameplay, avoiding the "frustrations of being stuck or wandering for hours," resulting in a play time estimated to take between 4-6 hours.

The full version of Spirit of Midnight isn't due out until later this year on Steam for Windows and Mac, along with a simultaneous release on Nintendo Switch (with other platforms under consideration). In the meantime, however, you can get your paws on a playable prologue for an abbreviated taste of what to expect.