Happiless to be happily released next year

Written by Jack Allin — May 19, 2017 at 13:08

Life is tough for any down-on-his-luck detective, but even more so when you're a bespectacled anthroporphic cat with a massive bowtie and no job prospects. The good news is, such hardships make for great adventure game fodder, as we'll discover next year with the release of Happiless.

As a feline detective on Sadmir, a planet with so little crime that you're forced to take jobs like finding lost keys and reuniting alcoholics with their longsuffering wives, the kidnapping of highly respected Professor Cookie (who has a PhD in caramel science) is a godsend. But the deeper you investigate, probing the minds of an eclectic cast of characters including a Baba Yaga, a wood goblin, Lady Coffee and Mr. Icecream, and even bizarre hybrids like unicatcorns, you'll also begin to discover more about yourself and your own past.

The first adventure from indie Russian studio Revolution Fist, Happiless is a classic-styled, third-person point-and-click mystery whose stunning hand-drawn artwork is displayed in the first batch of screenshots. While its offbeat characters and bizarre premise suggest a purely comic experience, the developers actually promise a "serious exciting story that takes place in an unserious world."

With an expected playtime between 10-15 hours, there is still a fair bit more development required, but if all goes well, we could see Happiless released on Windows, Mac, and Linux next spring, with mobile and perhaps even console ports to follow. Fortunately, we won't have to wait as long for a little sample while we wait, as a playable demo is planned before final release. You can follow the game's progress in the coming months through the official website.