There Swings a Skull: Grim Tidings
Release date: Sep 15, 2022
Developers: Conor Walsh, Quinn K.
Publishers: Poison The Inkwell
Genres: Casual, Indie
Categories: Single-player, Partial Controller Support, Family Sharing
Supported languages: English, French

THERE SWINGS A SKULL The town of Pareildas stands in the center of a vast desert. Its citizens live their lives quietly. Or, at least, they once did. In recent days the speaker-gallows sprang, weedlike, in the heart of the town - and since its inception the denizens of Pareildas have been sacrificed, one by one. The electric words that spew from the gallows claim this is to staunch the blistering hatred of the vengeful sun... but the heat has only grown more and more unbearable. OUR PROTAGONISTS Anatoli works for the town train station. He dreams of leaving Pareildas, so that he might peacefully live out the rest of his life with his husband. His dreams share much in common with the blackened husks of the town's denizens that line the streets. Pyotr is an independent artist. He hopes, deeply, that he might do something to stop the hellfire slowly consuming Pareildas. But the price of stopping the natural order is immensely steep - and, of course, there's no guarantee this is a natural occurrence at all... ABOUT THE GAME There Swings a Skull: Grim Tidings is a narrative-horror game built in RPG Maker 2003 by Conor Walsh and Quinn K., with music by Leaf Let. Though the game initially released as a jam game it was so well-received - and sat so well with our team - that we decided to build it out into a full game. Conor Walsh is a professional narrative designer who has written on such titles as The Outer Worlds, A Place, Forbidden, The DreadX Collection 2, and many others. Quinn K. brought indie darling OFF to the English-speaking world and recently released the stylish and moody AN OUTCRY. We hope you enjoy our work. FEATURES A deep central narrative Gorgeous pixel and fullscreen graphics A unique, haunting soundtrack Two separate routes and a third that we dare not mention Multiple endings A hateful sun The endless ocean Death 

Press reviews: “[There Swings a Skull: Grim Tidings] delivers an intense abundance of narrative detail with devastating economy.” PC GAMER “All of this surreal oddity and foreboding doom gives There Swings a Skull a very different feel from most horror games.... the town is the monster – a horrifying sun-baked purgatory that has no escape. Madness and death are the only things that flourish there and it looks like you’re headed towards one or the other. Highly recommended.” Alpha Beta Gamer “...the game is... memorably strange, molding together its eccentric ideas with pixel art in sallow colors.” Fanbyte 

Notes: Game includes: immolation, smoking, hanging, drowning, spiders, apocalyptic themes, and harsh language.