First details open up glimpse into Thrillgate

Written by Jack Allin — March 1, 2020 at 11:26

Nostalgia for the 1980s is in vogue these days, in no small part thanks to the popularity of Stranger Things, and soon indie developer Gabarts Digital will be taking us back in time to a similar small American town in his upcoming point-and-click adventure, Thrillgate.

The game stars a young man named Gabriel Chunk, a young student who "loves arcade games" but gets unwittingly swept up in the fantastic events in his hometown of Ashburg, Oregon in the summer of 1987. When an "unidentified object falls to the ground" in the nearby woods, soldiers are deployed to recover the artifact and block off the area, refusing to let anyone else past. Undaunted, soon Gabriel finds himself involved in an unexpected adventure involving "mad scientists, time travel" and more on a "journey through reality and beyond."

With comic book-style cutscenes, hand-drawn backgrounds and 3D characters, Thrillgate is a classic-styled third-person adventure that sends players to various locations throughout Ashburg, including the local arcade, a scenic pond and even a souvenir shop dedicated to Bigfoot memorabilia, but eventually you'll make your way to "other dimensions" entirely and must attempt to get back home. The gameplay promises to be traditional as well, tasking players with exploring the town (and any other worlds you might visit), talking to other characters, collecting inventory items and solving puzzles along the way. One key difference, however, is that Gabriel won't be the only playable protagonist, as you'll also control his friends at different points as well.

A one-man effort by Gabriele Ciucchi, who previously released the freeware game Indiana Jones and the Gold of Genghis Khan in 2014, Thrillgate does not yet have a target release date, though it's due to arrive sometime this spring for Windows and Mac on Steam and itch.io.