today Umurangi Generation developer ORIGAME DIGITAL and indie label Fellow Traveller launched Penguin Colony, the cosmic horror game set in the Antarctic and told through the eyes of a penguin, onto PC via Steam, Good Old Games Store, and Humble Store.
Set in Antarctica in 1939, Penguin Colony follows two rival expeditions heading further into the frozen continent in pursuit of something ancient, uncaring, and best left alone. One expedition, the Nazis, has come to Antarctica seeking an ancient power they believe could provide proof of their own superiority. The other, a Kaitiaki expedition, is attempting to stop them and return whatever lies beneath the ice to its slumber.
You do not care about either expedition beyond curiosity, because you are a penguin. One of many, from the local colony.
You will waddle, swim, and slide across Antarctica as different species of penguins, each with their own abilities and limitations, and follow the humans into places they were never supposed to reach. Squeeze through tiny spaces, eavesdrop on conversations, and uncover environmental details and increasingly inexplicable evidence of what is happening around you.
You are only a witness to the humans that have brought their ambitions, ideologies, and conflicts to Antarctica. Your curiosity drives you to observe what happens next. The game’s Insight system can change what you’re capable of perceiving, while strange imagery, hidden discoveries, and environmental storytelling will leave you to determine what you’ve witnessed for yourself.
Drawing inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, John Carpenter’s The Thing, David Lynch, and the experimental horror design of the PlayStation 2 era, Penguin Colony embraces ambiguity, vulnerability, and the uncomfortable feeling that there are things in the world too big - too ancient - to understand.
Penguin Colony draws deeply from weird fiction while interrogating the assumptions beneath it, exploring colonialism, human ideologies, and the horror of discovering that humanity was never particularly important.
For more on Penguin Colony, pick up the game on Steam, check out the ORIGAME DIGITAL website or follow them on Bluesky, and Fellow Traveller on Bluesky, TikTok, Instagram, Threads, or join the official Fellow Traveller Discord.
MEDIA CONTACT
About ORIGAME DIGITAL
ORIGAME DIGITAL is a new media studio located in Ahitereiria. Developers of the IGF Grand Prize Winner Umurangi Generation (2020). Combining the new medium of Video Games with the original storytelling ways that's what ORI-GAME is all about. Next time you feel like something fresh, check out an ORIGAME. ORIGAME DIGITAL has just launched the new cosmic horror game, Penguin Colony, on PC via Steam, Good Old Games Store, and Humble Store.
Website: home.tapiki.io
Bluesky: @origamedigital.bsky.social
About Fellow Traveller Games
Fellow Traveller is an indie games publishing label exploring the possibility space of what narrative games can be. Since our founding in 2012, we have sought out and partnered with pioneering game developers working on unusual games with narrative at their core.
You may know us from the tabletop-inspired RPG set in the ruins of interplanetary capitalism (Citizen Sleeper), the polar exploration survival story riddled with life-or-death decisions (The Pale Beyond), the noir adventure set before, during, and after the Big Bang (Genesis Noir), or the murder mystery with a cast of otherworldly suspects (Paradise Killer).
Join us on a journey into a world of surprising games and unusual stories.
Website: fellowtraveller.games
Bluesky: @fellowtraveller.games
Instagram: @fellowtravellergames
Threads: @fellowtravellergames
TikTok: @fellowtravellergames
Discord: bit.ly/FellowTravellerDiscord