Kentucky Route Zero devs tease their mysterious new project

Whatever’s coming from Cardboard Computer, it’ll be worth the wait

Kentucky Route Zero is probably in my top five favorite games of all time. The game’s whole feel, its subject matter, the process that went into making it — I’m fascinated by the whole thing, which is why I’m so thrilled to get absolutely any news from the development team behind it, otherwise known as Cardboard Computer. While it hasn’t been all that long since the release of Kentucky Route Zero‘s final act back in 2020, the team has been hard at work on their new project, as they showed during the Annapurna Interactive Showcase.

While we have almost no information about what type of game it will be, where it will be set, any story points, etc., we did get a brief look at Cardboard Computer’s new workflow, and what little we saw already has me giddy to learn more. Developers Jake Elliot, Tamas Kemenczy, and Ben Babbitt showed off their new animation software, which utilized some kind of face-mapping tech rigged up to a character model.

They stated that this is the first project where they will be focusing more on performance, and while Kentucky Route Zero was a fairly slow, static game, this new project will be more “lively” with fully-animated characters. The story will also be more upbeat this time, they said after reminding themselves that while Kentucky Route Zero had comedic moments, it was ultimately a tragedy. Apparently they started working on the new game right away after Kentucky Route Zero wrapped up, and they’ve had this idea kicking around for as long as their debut title.

I’m thrilled to even get an update, and will be awaiting any more with bated breath. Although the details are sparse right now, Cardboard Computer is one of those developers that I have faith will deliver something amazing every time.