Blasphemous creators are creating a real-time strategy game about escaping a haunted Spanish monaster

The Game Kitchen, the creators of Blasphemous, revealed a new title last night at the Future Game Show. While it's very different from the studio's challenging 2D Soulslikes, the team's fascination for Catholic imagery and doctrine is still present. The Stone of Madness, a real-time strategy game in the style of Shadow Tactics or Desperados 3, is set in an 18th century Jesuit monastery where you must escape before your team of talented prisoners go insane.

The Stone of Madness lets players control five characters who are all trapped in a monastery deep in the Pyrenees. Each character, like in other real-time strategy games, has their own set of skills. According to the Steam page for the game, these include "casting spells, assassinate enemies, and distracting them". You can switch between characters to solve puzzles and evade the guards of the monastery.

While the Stone of Madness may be similar in mechanics to games such as Shadow Tactics it sounds like it will be structurally different from Mimimi’s games. The monastery will consist of a single open space, which you'll slowly peel back layers. The conditions within the monastery change according to the time of day. During the day, you can explore the monastery semi-freely. However, there are restricted areas, where guards can punish you for snooping. The nighttime takes a supernatural twist, with guards and ghosts roaming the cloistered halls of the monastery. This makes sneaking about at night more dangerous. However, it also brings with it the potential for greater rewards.

This paranormal aspect also plays a major role in The Stone of Madness’ other distinguishing feature. Your prisoners are not only skilled, but also psychologically traumatised. They all have negative traits in addition to their unique skills. These psychological traumas are triggered by a variety of events and circumstances that will further impact the character's sanity.

Frankly, this sounds awesome. I had some issues with Blasphemous (some of their platforming was iffy), but I loved the worlds and the art direction. I'm excited to see The Game Kitchen bring those talents to another genre. The Stone of Madness has a lot to offer in this regard, as you can see from the trailer above. The isometric animations and art are very striking. The developers claim that the visuals of the game are inspired by Goya's works, which they are. I'm also interested to see how The Game Kitchen explores the wilder edges of Catholicism. The Blasphemous series excelled in this area.

Steam says that The Stone of Madness will be released in 2025. With this and Commandos: Origins coming out, I'm happy that the real-time tactic genre continues to sneak new games onto my PC despite Mimimi Games' sad closure last year.