Penguin Colony is available now on PC through Steam, GOG, and the Humble Store. Developer Origame Digital, the studio behind Umurangi Generation, and publisher Fellow Traveller have released a cosmic horror game that casts you as a penguin observing an Antarctic expedition gone wrong.
Set in 1939, the story follows two rival groups as they pursue something ancient beneath the ice. Your interest in their conflict is simpler: you’re a curious bird following the humans somewhere they probably shouldn’t go.
Witness Rival Expeditions Through a Penguin’s Eyes
A Nazi expedition arrives seeking an ancient power it believes will validate its ideology of superiority. A Kaitiaki expedition opposes it, hoping to stop the intrusion and return whatever lies beneath Antarctica to its slumber.
You witness their actions rather than take charge of the conflict. Playing as different penguin species, each with its own abilities and limitations, you’ll waddle, swim, and slide through the frozen setting.
Small passages let you reach places humans cannot. Eavesdropping and examining your surroundings gradually reveal increasingly inexplicable signs of what the expeditions have disturbed.
Insight Changes What You Can Perceive
The Insight system changes what you can perceive, adding another layer to the strange imagery and environmental storytelling. The game leaves you to interpret what you’ve witnessed.
Origame Digital cites influences including H.P. Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, John Carpenter’s The Thing, David Lynch, and experimental PlayStation 2-era horror.
Alongside its cosmic threats, Penguin Colony examines colonialism, human ideology, and humanity’s assumed importance.
Penguin Colony is out now on PC. You can find it on Steam.
