Grave Seasons

Grave Seasons is a pixel art farming simulation game with a murder mystery and horror twist, developed by Perfect Garbage and published by Blumhouse Games. After a treacherous escape from jail, the player arrives at a new home in Ashenridge, an idyllic isolated mountain town with some seriously unsettling vibes. As the player works to establish a farming life and become part of the community, murders begin to plague the town and put the new peaceful life at risk.

The central hook is that someone living in Ashenridge is a supernatural serial killer, and the killer's identity is randomly chosen at the start of each playthrough. The player grows crops, fishes, mines, crafts, and builds relationships with the locals while investigating the murders, searching for clues, and trying to identify the next victim before more blood is spilled. The game is single-player and launches in Fall 2026.

Premise

Grave Seasons blends the cozy structure of a farming sim with a dark, supernatural murder mystery. The everyday work of running a farm is tied directly to the investigation: what the player harvests, crafts, and gathers plays a critical role in unraveling the mysteries of Ashenridge and warding off whatever is stalking the town. Building trust with the townsfolk through quests is essential to getting close enough to uncover the truth, and the player can even end up romancing the killer.

The game is large in scope. Perfect Garbage has said it ships with over 300,000 words of narrative and more than 600 items to discover, spread across the mountainside town of Ashenridge and its two districts.

See Gameplay for a breakdown of the core systems, The Murder Mystery for how the killer and the investigation work, Ashenridge for the setting, and Characters for the town's residents.

Key Facts

Core Features

• A narrative led farming sim where one of the townsfolk is a supernatural serial killer.

• Grow crops, fish, mine, and sell goods to take part in the local economy.

• Investigate residents, search for clues, and identify the next victim before they are killed.

• Craft items to ward off the threat stalking the town.

• Complete quests and build trust with the locals, and romance them, including the killer.

• The killer is randomly chosen each playthrough, so the mystery changes every time.

• The game launches day one on Game Pass for Xbox Series X|S.

Development And Inspirations

Grave Seasons is the second game from Perfect Garbage, a studio founded in 2018 whose co-founders are Son M. and Emmett Nahil. Its earlier release was the narrative game Love Shore. The team began work on this project in July 2023 and partnered with Blumhouse Games shortly afterward. The developer video series that accompanies the game is hosted by Louise Blain, who is creative director at the publisher rather than a member of the development team.

The team cites Harvest Moon: Save the Homeland (2001) as a foundational influence on the cozy farming loop, with Cult of the Lamb and Dredge cited as inspirations for blending wholesome rhythms with darker subject matter. See Development for the full team and timeline.

See Platforms and Languages for platform and language details.