Sci-fi survival horror Signalis's debut trailer is chilling
Numbers stations are still creepy
Signalis has been quietly lurking in the dark corners of the internet for some time. A slow-burn project from two-person studio Rose-Engine, it promises traditional survival horror systems paired with a sharp PSX-esque aesthetic. They've been showing it off at trade shows and conventions for some years, buy only now has a proper trailer surfaced. Oddly fitting for a horror game that it lay just on the periphery of our vision for so long before creeping us all out with its cold and lonely sci-f atmosphere.
Billed as a Lovecraft-inspired sci-fi story, players step into the utilitarian space-boots of Elster, a 'Replika' (presumably some manner of android). She finds herself marooned on a desolate and frozen planet where things have obviously gone quite terribly wrong. At least, it's hard to draw any other conclusion from the fresh trails of blood. There will apparently be combat in Signalis, judging from an inventory showing a variety of guns, though the trailer holds off on spoiling what your enemies look like in action.
Developers Rose-Engine (made up of arty duo Alexander Zwerger & Barbara Wittmann) have been working on this one for some time, as this early 2014 concept shows. The current iteration of the game seems to have settled on a blend of sharp pixels and PlayStation-era 3D, and a more isolated setting. In the intervening years they also released a pair of little browser games on Itch.io; Grim platformer Ascend, and jokey monster-therapy adventure Coffin Counselling.
While there's no hint as to when Signalis will be released, Rose-Engine plan on running a Kickstarter for the game soon, and the game's official site offers a newsletter so you'll know when it goes live. While nobody should ever bet money on my predictions (I am such a poor judge of these things), I have a feeling this one will be swiftly funded once the Kickstarter page goes up, but maybe I'm just a sucker for a very well edited trailer.