Psychological Thriller ‘Grandma (88)’ Unravels Family Secrets, Coming to Steam Later This Year

A hand-drawn mystery adventure where memories and spaces shift with every question you ask

First playable demo at Gamescom 2026 Indie Arena Booth — Wishlist now available

Leipzig-based indie studio ROTxBLAU has announced that its mystery thriller adventure Grandma (88) will launch on Steam in the second half of 2026.

Grandma (88) is a hand-drawn mystery thriller adventure in which a granddaughter visits her dying grandmother and begins uncovering long-buried family secrets. What sets the game apart is its central conceit: the player and the narrator are in direct opposition to each other.

A Grandmother Who Manipulates Memory — and the Player

The grandmother in this game is no passive storyteller. She actively constructs the world the player explores, distorts memories, and works to conceal a dark family history stretching back to the Nazi era — all while the player tries to find the truth.

To uncover what really happened, players must explore the grandmother’s memories, solve puzzles, and constantly question whether what she’s telling them is true. Deciding when to push back and when to believe her is the game’s central tension.

Crucially, every time the player challenges the grandmother’s account, the room’s layout shifts — corridors move, clues change position, new details emerge while others are concealed. The deeper you dig, the more contradictions surface in her story, and the more clearly her family’s secrets become entangled with the history of the Nazi period.

Fear Rooted in Intimacy and Silence

Grandma (88) uses hand-drawn pixel art and careful sound design to build psychological tension.

The horror here doesn’t come from sudden scares. It comes from the warmth and intimacy of family, from silence, from the stories people construct to hide or distort the past. Suppressed memories, family myths, and intergenerational trauma are woven into the gameplay itself, creating an atmosphere where gentle visuals and heavy themes sit in deliberate contrast.

Trust Is the Key to Truth

The game’s core mechanic is trust. Push the grandmother too hard, and she’ll shut down entirely — angry or simply closed off. Tread too carefully, and you may preserve the relationship while never reaching the truth.

The grandmother leads, deceives, and sometimes actively steers the player away from what’s real. She is narrator, antagonist, and occasional ally, depending on the choices made — and she responds differently based on how those choices unfold.

Developed with Historical Consultants, Including a Holocaust Memorial Foundation

ROTxBLAU co-founder and creative director Alexander Tzenker explained that “Grandma (88) began with questions about our own families — the silences, the contradictions, the stories that were never told.”

He added: “We wanted to explore that moment of listening to someone you love and gradually realizing something is wrong. During development, we also researched the experiences of people who had lived with family secrets, suppressed memories, and enforced silence — we didn’t want to stay inside our own perspective.”

The team worked with historical consultants, including a memorial foundation for victims of the Nazi “euthanasia” program in Brandenburg an der Havel, ensuring the historical context within the game is handled with care and authenticity.

Leipzig Indie Studio to Debut First Demo at Gamescom 2026

ROTxBLAU was founded in 2020 by Richard Minkus, Michael Söller, and Alexander Tzenker in Leipzig, Germany. The studio focuses on emotionally driven work that blends experimental game design with hand-drawn visuals. Grandma (88) is their first original narrative project.

The game has not yet been released, so there are no sales figures or user reviews, but a playable demo will be shown publicly for the first time at the Gamescom 2026 Indie Arena Booth. Developer interviews and hands-on sessions for media and creators are also planned during the event.

Grandma (88) — At a Glance