Top Hat Studios has picked up publishing for The Backworld, Numor Games’ quirky indie RPG with narrative-horror elements.
The Backworld is in development for Windows PC (via Steam) and unspecified consoles sometime in Q1 of 2026.
Here’s a rundown on the game, plus a new trailer:
Slip between the cracks of reality into a broken world where danger awaits at every turn. Explore endless dimensions to defy beings born out of pure chaos. Use your hoverboard to fly across gaps of darkness, hack into cyberspace with an alien engineer, and absorb the soul of a dead god.
Forge your own path—and bend this shattered reality to your will.
Features
- Nonlinear Exploration – The universe is nonlinear, offering countless paths to choose from. While the depths of The Backworld include surreal horror, you’ll also explore traditional JRPG-inspired fantasy and sci-fi worlds, including your hometown.
- Choose Your Approach – Survival goes beyond combat. Use strategy to overcome challenges—fight when necessary, sneak past threats, or find alternative solutions like diplomacy. Every encounter requires careful thought and can shape your journey.
- Abilities & Items – Unlock turn-based combat abilities as well as action abilities for exploring, like a hoverboard, dodge-roll, and sprinting. Equipping items also grants you further abilities in combat. For example, a knife allows you to apply a bleeding effect.
- Recruit Companions & Pets – Meet a diverse group of companions, including non-human characters, each with their own abilities, personalities, and stories. Each companion has a unique battle resource, like mana for a wizard or energy for a robot, altering how they play in combat. You can also recruit extra pets!
- A Cosmic Horror Journey – A cosmic war ripples through dimensions, reaching your hometown. With reality crumbling, you and your friends must face The Backworld to stop the chaos before it consumes everything.
- Many Ways to Play!
- Explorer: Focused on story and exploration with a relaxed pace.
- Adventurer: A balanced RPG experience with elements of horror.
- Survivor: A hardcore survival horror mode with perma-death.
