Lil’ Guardsman shares 'When Cozy Met Chaos' dev blog

Independent game studio Hilltop Studios, in collaboration with Versus Evil, have released an all new blog post exploring the idiosyncratic tone of its upcoming narrative-driven deduction adventure game Lil’ Guardsman ahead of its launch in 2024 on Switch. Click here to check out the ‘When Cozy Met Chaos’ blog post

Entitled When Cozy Met Chaos, this latest blog post explores how Lil’ Guardsman both does and doesn’t fit into the “cozy” genre. On one hand, it’s got cute characters and the look of a Saturday morning cartoon. Pretty cozy, right? But then it also has scored decision-making, light violence, gallows humor, and adult-oriented themes surrounding the moral and ethical dilemmas facing the player, whose choices can change the fate of the world. Yikes!

While interrogations aren’t exactly the most relaxing pastime, Lil’ Guardsman has an ace up its sleeve to combat the stresses of decision-making: you can rewind time with the Chronometer3000. As such, you can reshape any decision if it doesn’t turn out the way you expected. Features like this are what places Lil’ Guardsman in that strange realm somewhere between cozy and chaotic. Yes, you may have just accidentally ignited riot due to a bad call, but no worries, because with the press of a button, everything goes back to as it was!

Lil’ Guardsman is a narrative deduction game, inspired by the classic point-and-click genre and the mechanics of Papers, Please. Set in a high-fantasy world with the comedic sensibility of Monkey Island and other 90s Lucasarts adventure classics, Lil must make tough decisions as she decides who to allow into her castle home. Consequences can be severe, so you’ll have to make clever use of your abilities to uncover mass conspiracies and protect your castle and family from devious interlopers.