Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals Coming Later This Year

Coming at the tail-end of Nintendo's recent Indie World Showcase, Night School Studio has announced it's developing a follow-up to its acclaimed indie hit Oxenfree, with Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals currently in the works. The title was revealed with a brief trailer, confirming that it will be releasing later this year on PC and Nintendo Switch.

Lost Signals' teaser confirms it will play similarly to its predecessor, once again utilizing a 2D perspective and tasking players with solving puzzles through the use of a radio. In a tweet following the game's official reveal, Night School Studio added a few extra details about the game's story, revealing that it will take place five years after the events of Oxenfree and will follow a new character named Riley, who returns to her hometown of Camena.

Fans of Oxenfree will remember that Camena is just off the coast of Edwards Island, the main setting of the original game. If the trailer is anything to go by, it seems Riley will make her way to the supernatural hotspot, with the footage showcasing an ominous lighthouse and a clip of three intimidating masked figures surrounding a campfire on the beach. The teaser is capped off with a clip of Riley on a suspension bridge, using radio signals to open up an eerie portal in the sky.

For those who never played the cult hit, the first Oxenfree followed a separate group of friends who venture to Edwards Island and stumble across the same phenomenon as Riley, opening a ghostly rift. The experience was as much a supernatural thriller as a coming of age tale, becoming lorded for its emotional storytelling, humor, and sci-fi thriller focus. Oxenfree wrapped up its storyline through multiple endings, so it'll be interesting to see where Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals picks up and how connected it is to the events of its predecessor.

It's definitely a welcome surprise to see Oxenfree return, especially with developer Night School Studio having spent the last few years developing new projects. Back in 2019, it released After Party, which cast players as two college students who, after mysteriously dying, must out-party the devil to escape hell. They went on to release Next Stop Nowhere last year, which was a sci-fi road trip adventure. Fans will surely be excited to see Oxenfree return, with the game's excellent story and characters managing to cultivate a passionate fanbase in the years since its release.

Today, ID@Xbox and Twitch teamed up together to premiere their first-ever indie gaming showcase collab. The show included various announcements, trailers, and interviews with game developers. This included an update on the long-awaited, cinematic thriller title, 12 Minutes.

Since the game's reveal trailer during the 2019 E3 event, the game has grown to include a star-studded voice cast featuring the works of actress Daisy Ridley and actors James McAvoy and Willem Dafoe. The game is currently being developed by Luis Antonio and will be published by Annapurna Interactive.

For those unfamiliar with the project, 12 Minutes is described as a real-time, top-down, interactive thriller about a husband desperately trying to escape a time loop. Hoping to enjoy a romantic evening with his wife after work, his life is suddenly thrown into chaos when a police detective barges in, accuses his wife of murder, and beats the husband to death. However, he soon awakens and finds himself back in his apartment, twelve minutes earlier.