Crescent County is the witch tech racing delivery life sim you didn't know you needed

Before I played an early version of Crescent CountyI didn't know an in-game version of a motorized magical broomstick could do that feel Right. But here I am, making wide arcs through the gently rolling grass of the Isle of Morah, identifying the perfect hill to slide off, intuitively following flower paths to shortcuts through the open world. You'd think there'd be no right way to represent something as bizarre as this, but as I feel a ley line-powered boost ignite the rumble of my controller, I start to think, “Well, maybe.”

The debut game from Electric Saint – a two-person development team consisting of Anna Hollinrake (Autumn guys) and Pavle Mihajlović (Erica) – Crescent County is part open world exploration, part dating game, part gig economy delivery challenge, part racer, part life simulation and is all about the motor broom experience. It is ambitiousand with so many moving parts, one might expect it to have been put together in pieces – but the real point of origin was clear.

Hollinrake has been painting pictures of what she calls “witch technology” for years, building a following as people fall in love with the bright, strange worlds she creates in static form. When they decided to leave the world of AAA development behind and contacted Mihajlović to develop the technology, there was only one environment they wanted to bring to life together.

“The main feedback I get when I'm at conventions selling art based on this world, or on social media when I post pictures of it, is that people wish they could be in the world “I live through the paintings I create,” she tells Me. “I'm a games art generalist and have worked along the entire art pipeline, but my specialty is incorporating more worldbuilding into my work, from concepts to full 3D environments that provide a sense of place “I really want to give people the opportunity to enter a lovingly designed, picturesque space that feels both joyful and a little melancholic and, above all, in which they feel at home. “

That's what it means Crescent County wasn't built from disparate mechanical ideas that the developers wanted to fit into one game space – each decision was made because it fit the theme. Even in the early form of the game I play, this comes across. As the main character Lu, your motorized broom is the key to everything you do – you arrive on the island, take part in a race, and then become the island's courier. This job allows you to meet characters to get to know (and love), afford furniture for your apartment, and customize your broom to progress faster. In Crescent CountyIn the world, motor brooms are not a vehicle, but a culture.

“Motor broom racing is an underground sport run by a small group of the coolest people you know,” says Hollinrake. “It's heavily inspired by the roller derby and roller skating community (I'm an avid quad skater myself!), and we wanted to capture that punk, DIY attitude within the motor broom subculture.”

“However, the race is more about friends challenging each other in a fun way (e.g. who can climb the mountain first) than about big formal races with sponsors and an audience,” Mihajlović adds. “If you win, you can expect to learn some secrets about the island or maybe get a hot tip on how to get a certain broom part, but you can also sit back and spend some more quality time with your racer.” crush on.”

The idea that any activity can influence another seems to be key Crescent County. You build a life for Lu on the island – a race can lead to romances, a delivery job could earn you new decorations, and even building a house (so often a side hustle) can have an impact on the overall game.

“We're really interested in how we can make classic, cozy home decor drive our story rather than just serve aesthetics,” explains Hollinrake. “In the classic way of browsing Facebook Marketplace, you can do jobs all over the island for people who will pay you back with a couch that they have in the shed and aren't using. Inspired by our own experiences living in run-down shared apartments in our early twenties, we know what a big difference each piece of furniture can have on your social life or your sense of place – you can't have a dinner party without a dining table, and if you have your new friends With you, you can chat late into the night and deepen your relationships. Even if the spaghetti bolognese you made was terrible.”

This creates a very satisfying loop: the more you play and the more you engage, the more opportunities await you. Building again Crescent County as a living world and not a sandbox is the key. The game is divided into days and nights that pass depending on your choice (you can deliver during the day and race at night), rather than in a linear cycle that gives you an incentive to choose something interesting thing instead of that efficient Thing.

“Every day brings a variety of new opportunities to make some money, make the apartment less sad and experience more island drama,” says Mihajlović. “You can choose who you want to help that day – whether it's because you want to hear a certain gossip, get a certain broom upgrade, or because your friend Rava promised you that she would give you something her unwanted and admittedly ugly couch when you help round up their wayward sheep. You can either plan your route carefully or take it easy and drive around and see what you get up to. At the end of the day, you can take your weird couch home, choose where you want to put it, and invite your friends over for a movie night – who will tell you that you don't actually own a TV.”

All of this would be moot if the brooms themselves didn't feel so good and the Isle of Morah wasn't such a fascinating place. This connection to Hollinrake's art means that this world is an extremely interesting place – unfamiliar silhouettes dot the horizon, and the sheer fun led to me spending as much time simply visiting places as doing Lu's job. So the final piece of the puzzle is designing a power broom that's right for you.

“Broom customization is, on the one hand, about building a motor broom that looks great and feels just like you, but on the other hand, it's also about how you decide how to get around the island,” says Mihajlović. “Whether you want to race down the straights, cut across a field or glide across a ravine, different broom setups open up different paths and play styles. You can also place sigil stickers on your broom, which grant you strange and wonderful powers, such as an offensive sideways phase change that lets you knock your rivals off the track, or a more forgiving 10-second rewind that lets you use it if necessary “I didn’t quite understand how to recapture a curve.”

The way the team provides mechanical and narrative advantages to the player is not only fascinating but also unusual. It's something that may have been difficult to present at previous studios, meaning self-publishing with ID@Xbox was a blessing:

“We are big fans of the ID@Xbox program – and Xbox Live Arcade before that,” says Mihajlović. “It spawned or enabled so many of the games we love, and in many ways, the entire indie wave that got us into the games industry in the first place.” I actually remember the first Summer of Arcade and how It was exciting and validating to see indie games on a console as a teenager, so to be part of the program now is incredible.”

With a two-person team, the game still has a long way to go before release – and a release date hasn't been set yet – but the early version I'm playing makes it clear how wild, strange and ambitious Electric Saint is receive. Just like his motor brooms, Crescent County It may be unusual, but it already feels just right.

Crescent County is coming to Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC. You can now add the game to your wishlist.