Hope in the City is a narrative mystery adventure launching November 11 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, and Steam. The game is available day one with Xbox Game Pass. Players assume the role of Hope Song, a 17-year-old aspiring artist living in Shenyang, Northeast China. The story begins when Hope returns home to find her apartment ransacked and her parents missing just as she prepares to leave for art school overseas.
Investigation Through Art
Hope is not a traditional detective. She lacks official authority and faces a community unwilling to share information. The game design centers on how an ordinary person investigates a crime without police powers. Players explore Shenyang to collect clues and engage in conversations. Hope records her observations in a notebook, which serves as the primary tool for solving the mystery.
The core mechanic involves combining two thoughts to reveal connections. Successful combinations generate insights that unlock new dialogue options, locations, and leads. Players can also use these insights to question other characters differently. This system allows Hope to explore ideas she cannot voice aloud, providing a sense of freedom despite her constrained physical situation.
Developers created individual responses for every possible combination of observations. This ensures that even unrelated thoughts yield unique reactions, such as jokes or subtle hints. The goal is to encourage experimentation without punishing players for incorrect guesses. Extensive playtesting refined the notebook interface to balance obvious connections with more subtle discoveries.
Hand-Drawn Visual Style
The game features a sharp angular art style, but the notebook itself contains more than 100 hand-drawn sketches by artist Calista Antonio. Antonio approached each page as a quick visual impression rather than a polished illustration. She used 3D models and assets from the game to block out perspectives and pose characters. She then added linework and digital watercolor to complete the sketches.
Antonio shares a personal connection with the protagonist. Like Hope, she left Asia at age 17 to pursue art in Canada. She has Chinese heritage and drew on her own experiences to capture Hope’s emotions. Some of Antonio’s actual paintings appear on the walls of Hope’s bedroom in the game.
Hope in the City launches November 11 on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox on PC, and Steam. It is available day one with Xbox Game Pass.
Source: Xbox
