Cold And Afraid is a PS1-style murder mystery aiming to be "Law & Order by Squaresoft in 1999"

Indie developers love making retro-styled games that look like PlayStation games you rented from Blockbuster and blitzed through in a feverish winter weekend. I'm glad, so here's another. Cold And Afraid is a murder mystery that aims to channel the 1990s with chunky characters and lots of lovely dithering. You play a detective out to stop a serial killer with a grisly pattern who's preying on the young women of an unnamed US city. On top of the obligatory tank controls, it aims to have "consequential dialogue choices" and a "Time Event system where you must meet certain people at specific times to forward different story threads". Ah, forgive me, you're here to see the chunky limbs. Here's a recent trailer that shows 'em.

"The retro style indie game trend has gone crazy," says solo developer Sunamii. "But I want this to be the greatest one you've ever played.

"In a genre where visuals are given priority over substance, Cold and Afraid places consequential dialogue choices, and the relationships you develop with characters at the heart of the experience."

Its cinematic slant reminds me a bit of Indigo Prophecy (that's Fahrenheit for you US folk), which was technically a PS2 game but let's not split hairs. Cold And Afraid has been in development for a bit, but we've not reported on it yet, probably because nobody here loves the warping textures and jagged vectors of Sony's glorious grey box as much as I do. "I'm working hard on getting a demo ready," says the developer. Take your time, my friend. I encourage cookery, as the youth say.

Cold And Afraid is not the developer's only PS1-styled project. They've also listed dungeon explorer Twilight Bastion on Steam. It started as a homage to PlayStation game Vagrant Story but shifted a little in feeling as the creator worked on it.

"As development progressed," they say in a xeet, "it has become more of a mix between Demon's Souls x Symphony of the Night."

Those are some tough acts to follow. As a solo dev, Sunamii seems to like setting high bars. Speaking about Cold And Afraid, they say they want it to leave a lasting impact.

"A lot of indie games come and go. Released one week, forgotten the next. If the same happens for this one, then I've failed. Your work must live beyond release week."

Sunamii also previously released Isolania, an adventure game about living, working, eating, and sleeping within the confines of a small cell to escape an ongoing plague (oh hello traumatic Covid memories how have you been?).

As for the PS1 retro craze, it kicked off in earnest following the Haunted PS1 Demo Discs, which have been wonderful yearly compilations of small retro-styled horror games. But other developers are embracing the aesthetic, including PS1 moderno-mementos like the upcoming Sorry We're Closed and (arguably) Dread Delusion, which features the jittering vectors characteristic of Sony's machine even while it hews closer to PC classic's like Morrowind.