Curse of Resthaven Preview EXCLUSIVE
Majora’s Mask, Dredge, Cult of The Lamb, Nier Automata, Monkey Island and Return of The Obra Dinn. All exceptional games and all extremely unique. What they share in common is that they’re all part the inspiration behind Curse of Resthaven, the new title from Hilltop Studios, the small indie team behind 2024’s whimsical indie breakout “Lil’ Guardsman”
We met with the studio to discuss their bold and dark new direction, the project’s genesis, the Blue Prince effect, and how Curse of Resthaven will feel unique despite the plethora of inspirations and blend of genres.
What is Curse of Resthaven?
Curse of Resthaven is narrative driven, investigative gothic horror roguelite where you’re caught in a seven day time loop. You’re the newly appointed governor of Resthaven, which comes with it’s own set of challenges like managing the needs of the colony, but in parallel and more importantly, you must investigate the disappearance of your niece.
Hilltop Studios is making a bold statement with their follow up to Lil’ Guardsman. Not only is the tonal change stark, but Curse of Resthaven incorporates elements of many different genres including roguelite, deck building, town management, and narrative investigation.
I asked the studio why they chose to incorporate many elements from a wide range of genres, even niche ones and as it turns out the answer is reverse engineering. Hilltop’s first priority was to craft a captivating story set in a fantastical world. They ensured their 18th-century world felt authentic by drawing inspiration from their real world research, despite Resthaven’s fantastical elements.
Hilltop crafted the story and world, then chose gameplay mechanics and a core loop to support the core concept of Curse of Resthaven. When asked how they combined various genres, they explained that not every genre deserves equal attention. They identified interrogation and deduction mystery, along with the trading sim, as the “big flavors”, with the others genres as support mechanics.
Though Curse of Resthaven might seem like a radical departure from their debut, it’s actually quite consistent with the Hilltop mission. At their core, both games prioritize story rich content, deep characters, and managing relationships, which is the connective tissue. Where the experiences differ, is in their storytelling approach. They also told me that despite the different facade, horror and comedy share elements like rhythm and timing of information, and the skills learned from Lil’ Guardsman will be crucial in the narrative beats of Curse of Resthaven.
“ABOVE ALL, RESTHAVEN NEEDS TO BE FUN”
However, none of that will matter if the game isn’t fun they mention, which begs the question: How do all of those inspirations roll into one cohesive and fun gaming experience? You start slowly and then little by little your scope expands, which is similar to Dredge along with the heavy Eldritch undertone. As governor, you will need to focus on keeping your colony happy, before going out in search of answers, which is reminiscent of Cult of The Lamb. For reasons currently unknown, time resets after seven days and in the words of the developers “Majora’s Mask is an obvious source of inspiration because it’s a time loop done well”
Multiple times throughout our discussion, the team often hinted about there being more than meets the eye to Curse of Resthaven. If their mention of Nier Automata provides any clues, it would be that more lies beyond the credits for those who want to find all of the secrets that Resthaven has to offer
Despite borrowing elements from other classic gaming experiences, Hilltop strongly believes they are making something original and the way that everything gets combined will hopefully be appreciated when players get to finally play it later this year, which will hopefully be released in time for spooky season. Asked if they aimed to capture the essence of the best roguelites, they told me that they are chasing that ”five more minutes” mentality.
Harnessing this feeling is one of the top priorities in Curse of Resthaven and they feel they have accomplished this with the day mechanic. Each day of gameplay is the right size, has natural stopping points and is very satisfying”
THE BLUE PRINCE EFFECT
Investigative centric games aren’t new, but they gained a surge of popularity in 2025 when Raw Fury released Blue Prince and The Seance of Blake Manor to commercial and critical acclaim. Hilltop Studios are glad to be part of this genre as their priority is creating “thinky” games and they’re grateful for the extra attention the genre is getting.
Despite the distinct differences from Lil’ Guardsman, Curse of Resthaven is crafted using the studio’s ethos of creating joyous experiences, even if in this case they’re dark, disturbing, and unsettling.
Curse of Resthaven is scheduled to release later in 2026 and you can wishlist the game here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3796150/Curse_of_Resthaven/
