Curse of Resthaven Revealed as Hilltop Studios Makes a Narrative Roguelike Shift From Lil Guardsman
Toronto based Hilltop Studios has revealed Curse of Resthaven, its second major project and a narrative driven roguelike that studio director Scott Christian describes as a radical shift from the team’s award winning debut, Lil Guardsman. Announced during Indie Fan Fest, the new game pivots from bright comedic gatekeeping into gothic dread, placing players on the dark island colony of Resthaven with a strict 7 day deadline to uncover what is cursing the island and to save its inhabitants from a time loop.
The contrast is immediate. Lil Guardsman built its identity around a colorful, comedic take on the border control tension of Papers Please, where your decisions shaped who entered the kingdom and why. Curse of Resthaven keeps Hilltop’s signature emphasis on character and narrative, but raises the stakes into full catastrophe. Here, failure does not just mean letting the wrong person through a gate. Failure means the entire island is destroyed when the loop closes again.
In Curse of Resthaven, you arrive as the new governor of Resthaven, but the reason you are there is not purely administrative. Your niece has mysteriously disappeared, and while you juggle governance duties, you also investigate her vanishing, a thread that appears tightly woven into the island’s broader curse. Each run spans 7 days, and your routine becomes a strategic story puzzle. You speak to townspeople, trade with vendors at the dock, and try to keep the settlement functioning, or even thriving, while time steadily collapses toward another reset.
As expected from the roguelite structure, each new run becomes a learning cycle. You carry forward knowledge, unlock new routes, and build a stash of resources that improves your odds when you venture beyond town on excursions with Resthaven’s characters. That loop design gives Hilltop room to deliver narrative reveals through repetition, while still creating mechanical forward momentum as you optimize decisions, relationships, and timing.
On the presentation side, Hilltop is doubling down on what worked. Curse of Resthaven is entirely hand drawn with a distinct storybook gothic look, and it will feature 25 fully voiced characters. Christian is also returning to compose a new original score, following his work on Lil Guardsman, which signals a consistent studio identity even as the genre tone shifts dramatically.
Publishing is being handled with support from Digital Bandidos, an indie publisher founded by veterans connected to Hilltop’s previous publishing network, and Digital Bandidos leadership is publicly backing the project’s story and art direction as a major hook for the market. Hilltop has not provided a specific release date yet, but the studio says Curse of Resthaven is planned for PC, Mac, and consoles later this year.
Christian summed up the tonal target with a vivid pitch, calling it evocative, story rich gothic horror, like if Twin Peaks and Lost had an eldritch baby raised by Edgar Allen Poe, while still aiming to be fun to play. That framing is not subtle, and it communicates intent clearly. Hilltop wants players to feel tension, curiosity, and dread, but also to enjoy mastering the loop.
Do you want Hilltop Studios to lean even harder into horror and consequence with Curse of Resthaven, or would you rather see the studio keep a trace of Lil Guardsman style humor to balance the darkness?
