Strange Horticulture sequel announced, deals in antiquities instead of plants

Strange Horticulture is getting a sequel, developer Bad Viking and publisher Iceberg Interactive announced Thursday. Folks, we’re heading back to Undermere. Strange Antiquities is set several years after Strange Horticulture, swapping plants for “arcane artefacts.” There’s no release date just yet, but I’m eager to dive back into the occult world.

Like in Strange Horticulture, you’ll take over a quaint, mysterious shop with unusual items that may help or hinder the locals. Outside of open hours, you’ll be able to explore Undermere and collect new antiquities. Of course, you must pet the shop’s cat. The story begins with a mystery: Hundreds of ravens begin circling above the town. Here’s how Bad Viking describes it:

As the Thaumaturge’s apprentice, you’ll be tasked with running a shop dealing in mysterious antiques, but when hundreds of ravens start circling over the town of Undermere, those in the know become concerned. Occult Scholar Verona Green plans to visit Strange Antiquities to inquire about this unnatural turn of events, however, before she can meet with you, things take a sinister turn...

Bad Viking founders John Donkin and Rob Donkin told Polygon via email that they’ve pulled their approach to puzzles from Strange Horticulture into Strange Antiquities. “One thing we noticed that people loved in Strange Horticulture was that all the puzzles make sense in the environment in which we present them,” the duo said. “It allows you to get fully absorbed in the world and your role in it, and that has been our approach again with Strange Antiquities. We never cram in a puzzle just for the sake of it, and the theme serves as a guide for what goes into the game. It’s the kind of restriction that really helps focus the design process and hopefully adds to the depth of the world we’re creating.”

They continued: “We also learned to always include a cat.”

Strange Antiquities is a bigger game, with a bigger shop. John and Rob said they’ve added more reference books to complicate the item identification puzzles, making the game feel more detective-like. “You might need to look up a symbol or a gemstone, or you might need to use the index in the back of the book to cross-reference against another entry,” they said.

One of the things I loved about Strange Horticulture was the atmosphere. Everything felt right in the weird, dimly lit plant shop. That environment will be important, once again, in Strange Antiquities. John and Rob said the atmosphere is a mixture of the game’s different elements: “narrative tone, artwork, animation, lighting, sound, and probably a bunch of other things.” The simple setup — with the game largely in one location — means the atmosphere is essential.

“We think it also helps to have a very clear vision of what it is we want to create,” Rob and John said. “We recently came across this quote from Thomas De Quincey, which delightfully sums up what we’re aiming for: ‘Surely everyone is aware of the divine pleasures which attend a wintry fireside; candles at four o’clock, warm hearthrugs, tea, a fair tea-maker, shutters closed, curtains flowing in ample draperies to the floor, whilst the wind and rain are raging audibly without.’”