An upcoming Steam game titled Dust till Dawn has generated some buzz since its reveal, and for good reason. The first-person indie has secured an original soundtrack from the legendary Silent Hill composer Akira Yamaoka, for one thing, but it has other boons on its side as well, like originality and novelty.

Dust till Dawn puts players in the shoes of a housekeeper working in a remote Japanese town. Adopting a first-person perspective, the game is highly reminiscent of titles like PowerWash Simulator and House Flipper, which center their mechanics around mundane tasks like cleaning and renovating. It's a subgenre that seemingly only continues to grow, with indie darlings like Hozy and Unpacking offering further, unique experiences in the "tidy things up" space. Gamified cleaning can certainly be satisfying, but as the trend continues to evolve, cleaning-based games (which already litter Steam) will have to keep innovating and experimenting in order to stay relevant. Luckily, that seems to be precisely what Dust till Dawn is doing, leveraging the unspectacular for the ends of horror.

Stepping on a twig or letting out a cough can prove disastrous in these sound-focused horror games.

Taking a quick look at the Dust till Dawn trailer will give you a pretty good idea of what it's aiming for: the game dons the trappings of a PowerWash Simulator , but some of the items and rooms the protagonist cleans aren't quite right. Maybe you'll dust off an unassuming bauble to find an eyeball staring back at you, or perhaps you'll open a closet hoping to pack something away, only to discover a sprawling, impossible void.

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