Cold And Afraid is a PS1-style crime thriller that aims to be “Squaresoft’s Law & Order in 1999.”

Indie developers love making retro-style games that look like PlayStation games you rented from Blockbuster and played through on a feverish winter weekend. I'm glad, so here's another one. Cold And Afraid is a crime thriller that aims to evoke the 1990s with chunky characters and plenty of lovely blather. You play a detective trying to stop a serial killer with a grisly pattern who's targeting young women in an unnamed US city. Alongside the obligatory tank controls, there are supposed to be “consistent dialogue options” and a “time event system where you have to meet certain people at certain times to advance various storylines.” Ah, excuse me, you're here to see the chunky limbs. Here's a recent trailer showing them off.

“The trend for retro-style indie games has gone crazy,” says solo developer Sunamii. “But I want this to be the best game you've ever played.”

“In a genre where visuals take precedence over content, Cold and Afraid puts key dialogue choices and the relationships you build with characters at the center of the experience.”

Its cinematic direction reminds me a little of Indigo Prophecy (that's Fahrenheit for you US folks), which was technically a PS2 game, but we're not being nitpicky. Cold And Afraid has been in development for a while, but we haven't covered it yet, probably because nobody here loves the distorted textures and jagged vectors of Sony's glorious grey box as much as I do. “I'm working hard to get a demo ready,” says the developer. Take your time, my friend. I encourage cooking, as the youth say.

Cold And Afraid isn't the developer's only PS1-esque project. They also have dungeon explorer Twilight Bastion listed on Steam. It started out as a homage to PlayStation game Vagrant Story, but the mood changed a bit while the developer was working on it.

“As it evolved,” they say in a Xeet, “it became more of a mix of Demon's Souls and Symphony of the Night.”

These are tough times. As a solo developer, Sunamii seems to like to set the bar high. They talk about Cold And Afraid, they want to leave a lasting impression with it.

“Many indie games come and go. Released one week, forgotten the next. If that happens with this one, then I've failed. Your work must last beyond release week.”

Sunamii also previously released Isolania, an adventure game about living, working, eating and sleeping in a small cell to escape an ongoing plague (oh, hello, traumatic Covid memories, how are you?).

As for the PS1 retro craze, it started in earnest after the Haunted PS1 Demo Discs, which were wonderful annual compilations of small retro-style horror games. But other developers are also embracing the aesthetic, including modern PS1 memorabilia like the upcoming Sorry We're Closed and (arguably) Dread Delusion, which features the stuttering vectors characteristic of Sony's machine, though it leans more towards PC classics like Morrowind.