So far, our highlights from AdventureX 2025 have included a boss fight anti-game, a dice-driven grimdark, and a series of vignettes set at a rhythm-based hairdressing salon. What else can the UK’s best narrative gaming convention offer? Wonder no more, dear reader. Behold, a second batch of story-driven games to add to your Christmas wishlist.
Ashwood Conspiracy (Release: 2026)
Ashwood Conspiracy is a gloomy Slavic mystery set in a small town that feels like it’s been rusting since the late ‘80s and never stopped. You return as Marcus after your uncle’s death, only to find that everyone is still haunted by a half-whispered “incident” that reshaped the community years ago. The atmosphere leans into crumbling concrete, foggy forests and that particular Eastern European flavour of resigned paranoia, where every chat over a cigarette could turn into a confession if you push hard enough.
You spend your time poking through your uncle’s storage unit, and subsequently apartments, alleys and woodland clearings, pocketing suspicious items and grilling old acquaintances for scraps of truth. Progress comes from stitching those scraps together, unlocking new parts of town and new puzzle threads as you peel back layers of family history and small-town guilt. Ashwood Conspiracy is being built by Yawning Dog Studios, with a free demo available on Steam and itch.io now and a full PC release planned for 2026.
Contact Protocol (Release: 2026)
In a future where corporations colonise moons and your job is as sci-fi mundane as checking forms, Contact Protocol drops you into the guard chair of the Pale Horse, a Galileo Corporation vessel heading to Ganymede. Developed by Cold Zephyr Games, the game positions you as its solitary security officer — balancing incoming communications, scanning incoming ships, and wrestling with the unsettling truth that your job might involve shooting someone before you’ve fully read their paperwork.
This is a job simulator with a narrative, a bit like if Papers, Please was more fleshed out and only slightly less cynical. You’ll investigate, interrogate, and engage when suspicion crosses the threshold. Ships approach, you must cross-reference their data, fix frequencies, and occasionally turn torpedoes loose — all while your mental cogs turn and your corporate overseers watch. The encounters are procedurally generated, your decisions forge consequences through multiple endings, and every playthrough feels like you’re learning new ways to fail. It’s set for release in 2026.
Esoteric Ebb (Release: 2026)
Esoteric Ebb is a talky, rules-heavy CRPG that asks what happens when you put a divine bureaucrat in the middle of a city on the brink of democratic upheaval. As “The Cleric”, you’re an “expert in esoteric incidents,” sent to look into a tea shop explosion in Norvik just days before the populace heads to the polls for the first time. The city is a delight: drunk sphinxes, devils in cheap suits, myth creatures working service jobs, and political factions formed around the corpses of dead gods, all chattering in a setting that feels like an out-of-control tabletop campaign.
Conversations are where your power lies. A constant chorus of internalised stats interrupts you with conflicting suggestions, each skill becoming a voice that pushes you toward different approaches, from intimidation to cosmic over-sharing. If it sounds like an absurd take on Disco Elysium, you won’t be far off. Skill checks use dice rolls, failures are as entertaining as successes, and you can resort to reality-bending “clerical” magic when words aren’t enough. Norwegian developer Christoffer Bodegård’s game is planned for release next year.
In Their Shoes (Release: TBC)
In Their Shoes is a grounded narrative mosaic about seven people sharing the same city and almost never seeing each other clearly. Set in a modern Milan-like metropolis, it strings together 49 short scenes — “Moments” — that drop you into everyday situations: awkward dates, night buses, family dinners, stressful commutes. The tone is small-scale and intimate; instead of big twists, the draw is watching your assumptions about each character erode as new angles and contradictions come to light.
Rather than following one hero, you slip in and out of each person’s viewpoint, nudging conversations, choosing where to look, and gradually unlocking hidden biographical notes as you pay attention. Over time, those snippets build a web of connections and a sense of how class, race, and circumstance shape each life in subtle ways. Created by Italian studio We Are Muesli, In Their Shoes has a PC and mobile launch planned for 2026 and an announcement trailer already setting the tone for its mumblecore-inspired, lo‑fi aesthetic.
Trans Theft Horso (Release: Out Now)
Trans Theft Horso is what happens when a messy coming-of-age story crashes headlong into a PS1 crime caper. You step into the life of Adric Belfonte, a trans lead whose problems start small and personal and then spiral into a chaotic, horse-infused odyssey that’s equal parts sincere and ridiculous. The art leans into lo-fi pixels, the writing into sharp, very online humour, and everything hums with a DIY punk energy that’s far more interested in identity and community than in playing things safe.
Gameplay is driven by exploration, chat and choices. You roam through side-scrolling neighbourhoods, pick dialogue options that can strengthen or strain relationships, and dip into light combat and puzzle sequences that keep the story moving rather than bogging it down in stats. Cow Children released Trans Theft Horso on PC in mid‑2025 as a proudly trans, gloriously strange narrative romp rather than a traditional RPG grind.
Ghost Haunting (Release: TBC)
Ghost Haunting is a throwback adventure with chunky pixels, big jokes, and a surprisingly tender core. You play eight-year-old Gigi, who discovers her grumpy grandad Giovanni isn’t just a curmudgeon but a renowned ghost hunter on the sly. When Gigi learns there might be a way to reach her late grandmother, she barrels into the spirit world determined to make contact — and in the process risks unravelling the balance between the living and the dead. It’s spooky in a kid-friendly way: more mischievous spectres and cheeky demons than outright terror, wrapped in Saturday-morning cartoon energy. Better still, it’s got some brilliantly inventive puzzles and it’s funny. Very funny.
You’ll chat with eccentric hauntings, pick up strange items, and solve puzzles that rely more on lateral thinking and wordplay than on suffering through ancient adventure-game cruelty. Baron Butternut, a talking pumpkin demon, tags along to offer commentary and the occasional nudge in the right direction, while modern conveniences like hotspot highlighting and an optional hint system keep things moving if you get stuck. Developed by Three Headed Monkey Studios and published by prolific point-and-click behemoth Daedalic, Ghost Haunting is headed to PC, although there’s no release date yet.
The Tragedy at Deer Creek (Release: 2026)
The Tragedy at Deer Creek is a slow, sorrowful mystery set in a mountain town that looks postcard-perfect until you start asking why everyone seems so haunted. You are Charlotte Gray, a photographer who arrives to document a notorious missing-persons case and quickly realises the disappearance is only one thread in a much wider tapestry of grief and denial. Think lonely gas stations, pine forests, and conversations that start polite and end with doors closing in your face. It’s a story more interested in emotional fallout than grisly spectacle.
Exploration and conversation drive the experience. You wander through hand-crafted locations, snap pictures, sift through physical evidence and talk to residents whose guarded responses gradually reveal how deeply Deer Creek’s history has scarred them. Your approach to interviews and how thoroughly you follow up on leads affects Charlotte’s understanding of events and colours the story in more hopeful or more hopeless tones. Sparrowland Studio is developing The Tragedy at Deer Creek for PC, with a demo available on Steam and a full release planned but not yet confirmed.
We Stay Behind (Release: TBC)
We Stay Behind follows journalist Laura Tanner as she rolls into Laburnum Creek, a scenic national park town that’s weeks away from being obliterated by an incoming comet — and whose residents have, bafflingly, chosen to stay put. On the surface, she’s there to write a straightforward feature on stubborn locals. Very quickly, the assignment turns into something stranger: the town feels too calm, the people too resigned, and there are hints that some collective secret or shared trauma is quietly holding everyone in place. The mood is dreamy and off kilter: sunsets over forests, quiet lakes, and conversations that leave you wondering if you’re getting the whole truth or a story the town tells itself. It feels a bit like if Twin Peaks was dealing with an upcoming apocalypse rather than a murder.
You guide Laura as she interviews townsfolk, wanders through the woods and side streets, and decides how sceptical or empathetic she wants to be. Her choices don’t just tweak lines of dialogue; key decisions can subtly shift how Laburnum Creek is presented, reflecting the way her perception changes as she digs deeper. There’s no combat and no timed fail states — it’s all about investigation, perspective and picking your words. It’s developed by Backwoods Entertainment and published by Application Systems Heidelberg who, for my money, are yet to release a dud. There’s no release date yet, but it’s one to keep on your radar.
Notable mentions
Mops & Mobs (Release: TBC) - A visual novel-cum-dungeon explorer with card-based battles which encourage you to experiment.
The Beekeeper’s Picnic (Release: Out Now) - A cosy point-and-click featuring Sherlock Holmes and Watson, if they were set in an Enid Blyton world. Minus the racism.
A Week in the Life of Asocial Giraffe (Release: TBC) - A visual adventure Sokoban, if it was transposed to a story about an anxious giraffe whose head literally explodes if it’s forced to interact with people.
Vice Undercover (Release: 2026) - Comb through a database of wrong ‘uns and report back to the police while pretending to be a cartel goon. Think Miami Vice with increasingly complex folder searching, a banging soundtrack and a pulpy story.
*****
AdventureX 2025 showed once again that the narrative gaming genre is as healthy as ever, bursting with creativity, diversity, and fresh voices that challenge traditional storytelling boundaries. From intimate, emotionally charged character studies to bold, genre-blending experiments, the event highlighted a vibrant community of developers pushing the medium forward. As storytellers continue to explore new perspectives and uncharted emotional territories, the future of interactive storytelling looks bright, promising experiences that resonate deeply and linger long after the screen goes dark.
You can subscribe to Jump Chat Roll on your favourite podcast players including:
Let us know in the comments if you enjoyed this podcast, and if there are any topics you'd like to hear us tackle in future episodes!
