What if your greatest tool for solving the mystery of your parents’ disappearance wasn’t a badge, but a sketchbook?

Launching November 11 on XBOX Series X|S, XBOX on PC, and Steam, and available day one with XBOX Game Pass, Hope in the City is a narrative mystery adventure where you play as Hope Song, a 17-year-old aspiring artist living in Shenyang, Northeast China. Just as she’s preparing to leave for art school overseas, she comes home to find her apartment ransacked and her parents missing.

Hope isn’t a traditional detective. She has no authority to demand answers and people around her aren’t willing to talk. When we began designing the game, we asked ourselves: how would someone like Hope investigate?

As Hope explores Shenyang, you’ll collect clues, engage in conversations, and discover observations that she records in her notebook. You can combine any two thoughts to see what connections they make. Successful combinations form insights and breakthroughs that unlock new dialogue, locations, and leads. You can also take what you’ve learned to other characters and decide what to ask them.

But this mechanic grew from something more than our love of detective games. We wanted to explore what choice means when the world around you limits your options. Hope can’t always say what she’s thinking or convince others to help. In her notebook, however, she can question anything, make unexpected connections, and consider ideas she would never say out loud.

Her actions may be constrained, but her thoughts are not.

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