Wanderstop

Wanderstop is an upcoming video game developed by Ivy Road and published by Annapurna Interactive. It is written and directed by Davey Wreden, composed by C418, and created with Karla Zimonja. The game is scheduled for release in 2024 for PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Windows on Steam.

Gameplay
The game follows Alta, a girl who wants to return to fighting in an arena, but has to tend to a tea shop in the meantime. In the game, she adjusts to her life in a magical forest, performing tasks to maintain the tea shop, such as growing and harvesting ingredients and mixing them together in a blender, cleaning and decorating the shop, and chatting with customers. However, Alta battles with her unresolved trauma throughout the game, and being left alone with any spare time is "torture" to her.

Background and development
In 2020, Cookie Clicker and original Minecraft composer Daniel Rosenfeld, known by his pseudonym C418, announced that he would serve as the "lead audio person" for a video game development studio in Austin, Texas helmed by The Stanley Parable and The Beginner's Guide creator Davey Wreden. On July 29, 2021, Rosenfeld, Wreden, and Gone Home artist Karla Zimonja revealed that they had founded a new independent game studio, Ivy Road, in partnership with Annapurna Interactive. They stated their intent to create a new video game with the company. Their publishing agreement was one of many announced at Annapurna's showcase that day, with Ivy Road being one of three studios, including Outer Loop and No Code, and Canadian developer Jessica Mak announced to be partnering with Annapurna to create a game. Studio co-founders Wreden, Zimonja, and Rosenfeld would release an official announcement video with Annapurna Interactive in which the earlier two co-founders were drinking tea and "joking around" about video games whilst Rosenfeld played an original piano piece in the background.

Marketing
During the Summer Game Fest 2024 showcase in June, the game was officially announced as Wanderstop, to be released that year on PlayStation 5 and Steam. A trailer was revealed at the event. In response to the trailer, PC Gamers Lauren Morton remarked that the game "[has] exactly the kind of commentary we'd expect from Wreden as Wanderstop's director and writer", and GamesRadar+s Hirun Cryer opined that Wanderstop "is The Stanley Parable creator's take on Stardew Valley". Inverse's Robin Bea felt that the game had the potential to explore the "real-world stresses that players are seeking to escape by playing them", and mused that the game could be seen as "a parody of cozy games themselves".