London, U.K. - March 17th 2025 - Longdue today launched the Kickstarter for its debut title, a ‘psychogeographic’ RPG called Hopetown. The studio is also pleased to announce that Ben Babbitt, one of the trio behind the critically acclaimed Kentucky Route Zero, and Pawel Blaszczak, music composer on the original The Witcher & The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt soundtracks, has also joined the team and composed the music for the Kickstarter video.

With the launch of the Hopetown Kickstarter, Longdue delves deep into the game’s mechanics, story and setting, as well as introducing players to the mix of industry veterans and upcoming talent working on the game. The campaign features a quantity and time limited (48 hours) pledge to allow early backers to have their name featured in an in-game memorial and design in-game objects. A further quantity-limited pledge will allow backers to get a copy of the game, or two copies, at a discounted price.

Hopetown is set in a mining town decades after a coronal mass ejection wiped out electronics and global communications. Here, they found the quicksilver, a substance that’s changed everything. Since the incident five days ago, people are dead, others are missing and mining operations have screeched to a halt.

Enter you: middle child of one of the richest men on the planet (voiced by Lenval Brown, narrator of Disco Elysium). You've drifted through life knowing only luxury and power, shielded by privilege and surrounded by sycophants. You've just stepped off an impossibly long train ride, wheeling an overpriced suitcase across the muddy cobblestone and nursing a four-star hangover. Your mission, or punishment, seems simple enough: figure out what happened, cover it up, and spin a better story. You’re a journalist, after all.

Different schools and methods of journalism will be your RPG classes: Gonzo. Investigative. Gossip. Conspiracy. Words will be your weapons, and you'll make your own truth. In Hopetown, the actions you take, the friendships you make and destroy, the change you bring — these things don't just live in your head, trapped in consciousness and fading into memory. They take shape in the physical world around you, real in every sense of the word. Just like the connection between you and your environment, which is enabled by a unique gameplay mechanic dubbed ‘psychogeography’.

The environment all around you — the town above and the mine below — will change during the game, based on the choices you make. Wasn't that postbox at the other end of the street? Wasn't this road uphill two days ago? Wasn't that gambling hall a pub when you woke up this morning? Things will change under your nose and under your heel. Make surprising new connections between characters, break longstanding friendships, and see what happens.

Hopetown is being created by a team that includes a mix of industry veterans and fresh talent, drawing expertise from the RPG-space, as well as writers with experience in games, theater and screen. Team members include ex-ZA/UM founder Martin Luiga, Narrative Director Grant Roberts, Technical Lead Piotr Sobolewski, Disco Elysium narrator Lenval Brown, Kentucky Route Zero developer Ben Babbitt, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt composer Pawel Blaszczak and Art Director Astri Lohne.

"I was in the ZA/UM cultural movement from the offset, and recruited key team members that went on to make major contributions to Disco Elysium, such as the Art Director and Writing Lead.” said Martin Luiga. “I will be helping Longdue expand the team in a similar way with local Estonian and international talent to build something more than Disco Elysium 2 - we want to push boundaries, not just meet expectations. I call upon the fans of the RPG and adventure genre to back the Kickstarter to help us make the game."

For more detail on Hopetown’s story and systems, as well as Longdue’s plan for the game, check out the Hopetown Kickstarter page.​