Demo served up for Grill’d: The Vanishing

• Announcements by Sam Amiotte-Beaulieu
• Published:

First-person dinner party deduction mystery arriving in 2027 on Steam for Windows PC

There’s something about fancy dinners and detective whodunits that blend together like a delicious plate of surf and turf. South Korean developer TheYellowRoom is preparing to continue this tradition of culinary capers with their upcoming dinner party mystery game, Grill’d: The Vanishing.

Detective Ashley has been given an important assignment as one of the royal investigators for the queen, but on her way past Porter Manor, the bridges to and from the estate mysteriously collapse and the sleuth is knocked unconscious. She later awakens to find herself locked inside the mansion of Rowan Porter, the last family descendent and Baron of Darling Downs, along with a variety of other strangers. Now it’s up to Ashley to learn the truth of what brought her and these other quirky characters to this remote manor cut off from the rest of the world.

To do so, the detective will have to unleash a dark power given to her by the queen herself: her demonic “Eusticia” named Rost, a small floating cartoon maid with the power to devour the souls of those who lie under oath of “The Grilling,” a fiery technique typically reserved for those accused of violent crimes. Soon, however, the case takes a surprising turn as a “mass  disappearance from ten years ago begins to repeat,” with first objects and then people starting to “vanish one by one.” Using Ashley’s skills of deduction and Rost’s dark power, you’ll either “uncover the manor’s hidden truth” or you may find yourself being the next to disappear.

Presented in first-person, free-roaming 3D with anime-inspired characters in a style somewhat reminiscent of the Danganronpa series, Grill’d is described as “a detective game where the manor itself is the player's investigation board.” You’ll travel through the various rooms of the house searching for clues and questioning people about your findings. Navigation is handled with a gamepad or standard WASD and mouse controls, but with the click of a button you turn on Ashley’s “insight,” which brings up a fork-like scepter that highlights any points of interest in the environment, such as a soil-filled mug or a bloodied knife on the floor. You can then inspect them when prompted and either pick up the item or automatically add related details to your notebook. 

As you uncover clues and form connections along a trail of evidence, you’ll also question your fellow captives, each with their own motivations and reasons for being at the manor, be it a traveling reporter, a mailman, or a timid housekeeper. After you have found all the necessary clues, you’ll gather everyone in the dining room each night for a high-stakes cross-examination and to further “cast suspicion on one another.” During The Grilling, the room catches fire around you and the guests are transported to a realm where any lies are greeted with a slow soul-devouring demise at the hand of Rost, one long-tongued lick at a time. Similar to the likes of the Ace Attorney series, you’ll listen to testimony from the individual being interrogated and point out inconsistencies in their statements using what you’ve learned. 

Grill’d: The Vanishing has only a general 2027 release target as of now, but a sizable, newly updated demo is available now on Steam for Windows PC, giving players an early taste of what to expect, including their first Grilling of one particular suspect.

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