I don’t know what Kentucky Route Zero is, but I sure do like it.
This is a game trailer for Kentucky Route Zero. And what is Kentucky Route Zero, you ask? It is “a magical realist adventure game about a secret highway in the caves beneath Kentucky and the mysterious folks who travel it,” according to Jake Elliott of Cardboard Computer, the indie game studio developing the game. It will feature an original electronic soundtrack by Ben Babbitt plus “old hymns and bluegrass standards” performed by The Bedquilt Ramblers, and will be released in five parts over the course of 2013, with the first part set to come out in December 2012.
This is the first I’ve heard of it, but Kentucky Route Zero has actually been in development for a couple of years and even had a Kickstarter that wrapped up successfully in February 2011. According to the Kickstarter page, the player will control an antique furniture deliveryman named Conway who’s trying to make the final delivery for his financially troubled employer. Gameplay will be slow-paced and focus on exploration and interaction with strange characters like Junebug, a robotic country singer who’s trapped in the abandoned restaurant where she once worked.
Nearly everything that’s known about Kentucky Route Zero at this point comes from the Kickstarter page, which may be a little out of date at this point – two years is an awfully long time in the game development biz, after all. But the trailer gives me a bit of an Another World vibe, and that in itself makes it worth paying attention to. (Paul Goodman says it’s more Limbo-like, but what does he know.) If you want to learn more (when there’s more to learn), you can add your name to the list at kentuckyroutezero.com.
Thanks to The_root_of_all_evil for the tip.
