Crowdfunding Chronicles

Crowdfunding Chronicles: GRUNND

An information booth sits in the middle of a field, against an orange sunset sky in GRUNND.

Campaign Ends: December 3rd
Platform: Windows, macOS, and Linux. Stretch goals add Switch.

Making its way from Finland to your home computer is GRUNND, a new sidescrolling point-and-click game mixing Twin Peaks with American Gods. A dark modern day sci-fi mystery, GRUNND will drop you into a gloomy, twisted world full of strange people and even stranger gods.

After yet another long day at your dreary job, you fall asleep on the train home, snoozing all the way past your stop. Sigh…it happens to all of us. You disembark in a cheerless little town, fully intending to make your way home as soon as possible; of course, our game has far more interesting things in store. Something just isn’t quite right about this unwelcome pit stop…the eerie atmosphere, the unapproachable people; what could possibly be lurking behind the town’s ordinary façade?

Our dark tale focuses on the narrative rather than on elaborate puzzles, and will introduce you to many strange characters who often put their own interests far ahead of yours. Make difficult choices to reach one of several endings and try out some sidequests along the way. Altogether, the game should take you around five hours to complete, with a handy fast-travel feature to get rid of the Backtracking Blues. Accessibility-wise, GRUNND features an optional hint system, and will offer the choice of either mouse or gamepad controls.

GRUNND screenshot of a man smoking outside on a bar's patio. It looks like it's almost night time.

Our murky mystery tale recently hit its funding target, with stretch goals adding a Nintendo Switch port and a special warehouse area devoted to the game’s backers. GRUNND piqued my curiosity almost instantly; my Netflix history is filled with European fantasy thrillers such as Ragnarok and Equinox, and what I’ve seen of the game so far shares a bit of a similar vibe. [Editor’s Note: GRUNND‘s vibe may also remind some of Wadjet Eye’s Unavowed, if that’s your jam!] If you feel like cutting your work day short and wandering off to a bizarre, out-of-the-way, and possibly supernatural town, this might be the place!

Disclaimer: While it’s possible some of us at RPGFan may be backers of the games mentioned in these articles, this does not influence our coverage or our featured game choices. We make our selections simply based on the active campaigns we feel our readers might find interesting, and we are not given special access or perks by the developers.

tl;dr: We think these games show potential and want to share them with you.

Tina Olah

Tina Olah

Tina Olah is a features writer and occasional reviewer for RPGFan. She is also an illustrator, cosplayer, book hoarder, and personal servant to a really cool Shih Tzu. Tina is an avid fan of strange science fiction and fantasy worlds, and would like you to know that she spent a considerable amount of time making Paladin’s Quest fan art back in grade 7.