Hollow Home to come out of Kyiv in 2025

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Announcements by Jack Allin
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Choice-driven narrative RPG about the Russian invasion of Ukraine coming to PC and consoles

Most of us, thankfully, couldn't imagine the atrocities of war coming to our doorsteps and turning our lives upside down almost overnight. The residents of Ukraine can, however, and indie Kyiv-based developer Twigames hopes to share just a little of that harrowing experience in the upcoming narrative RPG Hollow Home.

Based on the Russian attack on Mariupol in spring 2022, the game begins with 14-year-old Maksym enjoying what will turn out to be the last 24 hours of the "carefree childhood" he's always known. The very next morning, the invasion begins as Maksym awakens to an air raid alert portending "the sound of falling bombs and incoming artillery." Controlling Maksym, from this point on your new reality is simply to stay alive and help your neighbours whenever possible, so "as each passing day brings new tragedies, you will learn survival skills, face tough choices, and watch the war destroy your childhood home."

Hollow Home is an isometric narrative RPG inspired by Disco Elysium, with a similar emphasis on dialogue, branching quest lines and player choice. There is no combat to engage in directly, nor indeed any that happens in your presence. Instead the experience is meant to focus on the impact of war on "ordinary people caught in the middle of a battlefield," as seen through the eyes of a youth. Players will traverse three different districts around the war-torn city, which turn into shadows of their former selves over time, with "whole areas destroyed by shelling or shut off after being occupied by enemy troops." To survive in such hostile conditions, you'll need to "learn cooking, crafting, medical and other skills by interacting with characters and completing quests." As you get to know your fellow survivors, you'll do what you can to assist them, but "you have a limited number of action points each day, forcing you to face painful decisions."

Hopefully the Ukraine invasion will be long over by the time Hollow Home is completed, as the game isn't scheduled to be released until sometime in 2025 on Steam for Windows PC, along with as yet unannounced consoles. To follow its progress in the meantime, you can sign up for ongoing updates through the game's official website.