Raw Fury and Developer Fool Moon Announce Wordless Mystery Game ‘Hillthorn’ for Mobile, PC, and Nintendo Switch

Publisher Raw Fury and developer Fool Moon have officially announced their upcoming project, Hillthorn, during The MIX Fall Showcase, confirming a November 10th release date across a broad range of platforms including iOS, Android, PC, and the Nintendo Switch.

The title introduces players to a chilling, wordless mystery set within an isolated mountain community. The core narrative revolves around a missing child somewhere on a winding mountain trail, and the player is cast as the outsider sent up the slopes to track them down. Described as a completely silent experience where not a single character speaks, the game evokes classic atmospheric thrillers and folk-horror tropes reminiscent of The Wicker Man, where an inquisitive outsider is met with deep suspicion from a closed-off local populace that would much rather remain undisturbed.

Rather than relying on traditional dialogue trees, interrogations, or spoken exposition, Hillthorn delivers its entire story through an interactive system of Clue cards. Players must investigate, explore, and occasionally communicate directly with these cards, combining various discoveries to inch closer to the truth. Because the game is entirely wordless throughout, piecing together the narrative requires careful observation, critical thinking, and synthesis of the clues found scattered across the rugged terrain.

The environment itself acts as a formidable obstacle. The locals are unhelpful, bound tightly together by their distrust of outsiders and their loyalty to their community, known simply as "The Flock." Extracting any useful information or cooperation from them requires patience, caution, and considerable finesse.

Compounding the difficulty is a strict time mechanic. Players face a race against the clock, possessing far more investigative threads and leads than they have time to thoroughly pursue. Adding to the eerie atmosphere of the mountain, the environment itself appears strangely prone to granting second chances, occasionally allowing players to retrace steps over paths they may have missed. However, in a setting as desolate and unwelcoming as Hillthorn’s mountain, these mysterious reprieves rarely come without a cost.

For gamers familiar with Fool Moon or similar narrative card-driven titles, the mechanical framework may evoke memories of games like Cultist Simulator. While Cultist Simulator utilized a similar card-combining interface to run obscure occult rituals, Hillthorn channels that same systemic approach into a detective story—or a mystery, at least, though whether the term "detective" fully applies to a case where no one will speak a single word remains to be seen.

Hillthorn is scheduled to launch on November 10th on the App Store for iOS, Google Play for Android, PC via Steam, and the Nintendo Switch.