The sun sets on the first day in your new home, in a charming little village full of people you hope will one day call you friend. You’re wandering the woods and feel an unexpected sense of foreboding as a shiver snakes its way down your spine. Is it just because you’re alone — or is there something sinister watching you from the trees? That’s the point Emmett Nahil and Son M, cofounders of Perfect Garbage, started from when they set out to make Grave Seasons, an ambitious blend of farming sim, psychological drama, and “monster mash” horror.
“I think this feeling of unease has always been lurking under the genre’s surface as part of the natural tension of farming,” Son, one of the studio’s cofounders and writers, told Polygon over a Zoom call. “Y’know, animals would die in the older Harvest Moon games, and I remember when the music would cut at night, and it’s ambiance and you alone in the world, it felt pretty eerie and isolated.”
The cozy genre’s rapid growth over the last few years also inspired the desire to dig into its darker side, as it has other studios, too. “Cozy” has very specific terms and requirements, Son said, which naturally made them want to push at those boundaries and test their limits to see what kind of storytelling opportunities present themselves just by reshaping expectations and flipping familiar devices on their heads.
Chief among those expectations is the idea that the protagonist in a farming sim is inevitably a nice, innocent person who rolls into town with no secrets to hide. That very much isn’t you in Grave Seasons. You’re a recently escaped convict, and the isolation of a remote farm is a necessity, not a balm for city living. You can still decide how you want to live and what kind of role you’ll play in the community, but Nahil hopes it gives people a chance for greater introspection and roleplaying than you usually see in farm-sims.
“We ask you to participate in the community, to come off of your farm on the mountain and engage with the people around you, learn more about them, and kind of interrogate that sense of isolation,” Nahil said. “Interrogate why you want to be successful at farming in this management sim. Okay, you’re farming, you’re accomplishing all these goals, but who are you doing it for? Is it for your own needs and your own purposes, or do you have something else in mind? Is there a larger conflict that you want to engage with?”
There is a larger conflict in Grave Seasons, though you’re free to interact with it as you see fit. Innocent people are dying in horrible ways, and unspeakable horrors haunt the town after dark. Everyone has something to hide, and unlike in some other, similar games, they aren’t eager to give up their secrets just because you gave them 27 strawberries. If you want to pry into someone’s private life, you have to work for the knowledge. When that easy access is gone, it changes your perception of other characters — and how the early game plays out. Even when you work to gain someone’s trust, they’ll still keep parts of themselves from you. Then again, you’re a criminal, so a bit of breaking and entering to find someone’s hidden secrets isn’t that big of an ask.
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