At Gamescom 2026, I had the pleasure of talking to a great many developers from all around the world, each bringing their own unique ideas and projects to the show. One such developer was Auckland, New Zealand-based Kitty Wampus director Skyler Zeng, who, alongside his team, is working not only on the wonderfully whimsical and adorable 3D platformer Bashful Adoration, but also on the eerie, narrative-driven cosmic horror adventure Sleepover.
Skyler and I sat down to have a bit of a chat about the latter, as it marks Kitty Wampus’ first foray into visual novels while also exploring a number of themes that I adore in writing and art in general. Cosmic horror, isolation, existential dread, and all the other lovely things that make us question our place in the universe can be expressed in a whole bunch of different ways. And Sleepover‘s initial hook, in which everyone but you and one other person vanishes from the face of the Earth, had me genuinely hooked.
As such, I’m very grateful for the opportunity to give you a little look behind the scenes of Sleepover, arranged with the help of Jesús Fabre from JF Games.
I hope you will enjoy reading this interview as much as I enjoyed conducting it.
Sleepover is a cosmic horror adventure visual novel about the last two girls on earth. How did you come up with that premise?
Yeah, so it’s something I’ve always been a little bit interested in, kind of like post-apocalyptic settings, settings where characters are forced to be in complete isolation. I think that was probably the genesis of [the idea], and then it eventually grew from there.
Incredible solitude and isolation are these kinds of primordial fears humans hold that, I think, really mesh well with Cosmic Horror, so I’m really hyped for the game!
Oh, thank you!
Where does Sleepover take place and what is something you wanted to do with the game?
Yeah, so, the game, it takes place in the main character’s apartment. It’s a very small setting. That’s kind of where the bulk of the game takes place.
And yeah, with Cosmic Horror, as you mentioned, there’s a very like distinct and primal fear of insignificance, for example. We’re really honing in on that because how will a lone girl, the only survivor of humanity, feel when she, you know, is left all alone in her apartment and there’s no one else left out there.
That kind of setting, like this small apartment […] versus a whole world out there with just no one left… Honing in on that insignificance is something we really want to do.
So did everyone just vanish, or how did we get here?
Yeah, that’s definitely a part of the game’s central mystery.
Where did everyone go? How did this happen? What is the nature of how it happened? These are all questions […] that are part of the mystery for the players to unfold.
Is this your first foray into visual novels and cosmic horror?
It is our first time going at a cosmic horror visual novel, yes. [I have] done some writing in the past, but it was a lot more, I guess, chill and for myself. So, this is definitely a very big next step, yeah.
What is the hardest part that comes with making a game like this specifically?
Yeah, I guess the hard part is that it’s a video game: It’s meant to be fun, and it’s meant to be [playable]. But you know, visual novels are a lot of reading, for example. So, we did want to take some, like, game-ic elements and put [them] into Sleepover, which is why one of our biggest references is Mouthwashing.
I really love how it balances game elements with visual novel storytelling. You’ve got the ship to explore; you’ve got the characters in the game to talk to. Similarly, in our game, you have the apartment to explore, the different rooms, the different things in the environment, and yeah, one other character to talk to as well.
So what is the relationship between the two characters in Sleepover like?
It’s very complex, obviously, being the last two humans alive and also being complete strangers meeting on this one night.
As you can imagine, it’s not the most normal of scenarios; very complicated. I don’t want to give too much away about how their dynamics work, but if you watched the trailer, you might get some vibes of like what they might be like, yeah, without giving too much away. The vibes you get from the trailer – without spoiling anything – are probably the vibes that will carry throughout the game.
What is something that you were surprised by?
Yeah, I guess my team has definitely elevated the material a lot further because Sleepover was originally going to be a solo-project. Having team members on this ride brought just so much more to the entire game that I wouldn’t have come up with alone.
For example, even just the character designs that we have now are so much better than the ones I made alone. Every piece of the material has been changed and improved, honestly.
I knew that the artists we had on board were absolutely amazing. So, I kind of figured that it would resonate with people just because I know that the artwork is really, really good. I was expecting that, but also very, very glad and still a bit surprised [by] the positive reaction when our trailer launched.
So, I guess it did surprise us that we did get the traction there and the attention, but it didn’t surprise me in the way I knew that our artists were very good.
Sleepover as a whole leans into the cosmic horror, the fear of the unknown, the unfathomable, etc. Are there like monsters as well and stuff like that?
Yeah, there aren’t any like monsters in the traditional sense. Cosmic horror is a very interesting genre because there are many ways to represent it and to explore it. Like you can think of the C’thulhu [mythos] for example being cosmic horror. But then there’s also more subtle cosmic horror as well out there [without explicit monsters].
Like yeah, fear of being insignificant, you know, fear of being a small part of a larger force that you can’t quite understand. And we’re kind of honing in more on that kind of cosmic horror. So yeah, I won’t give too much away about that, but that’s the kind of flavour of cosmic horror we’re trying to show.
Do you have a release date or something in mind already?
We’re looking at around either quarter two or quarter three of next year.
We’ve just showcased the demo at some events internationally. It’s not available on Steam or anything publicly, at the moment though. We’re working hard to get it to that standard where it can be a public demo, but it’s not quite there yet.
And is there something that you personally like enjoyed a lot? Especially with you guys working on two very different titles simulatenously.
I obviously love working on both games, but Sleepover is quite different to me because it’s a lot more, I guess, personal in a way. […] Bashful Adoration was very much a team effort, which is great, right? I love working on it and with the team.
Sleepover came quite a while ago in my own mind. It was a concept that I had developed throughout the years, just thinking about it, like, you know, on the ride to uni, for example. So it does have that personal attachment to me and it does have that like really gratifying sense of like, oh, you know people like this idea that I came up with and that we now have developed with the team.
It does have a very different quality to it, and I’m super, super, super grateful that people seem to resonate with it already and very excited to continue to show more in the future.
Is there anything else that you’d like to say?
For sure, I mean, if I was to say thank you, I’d say thank you to the team. Seriously, such a talented team; couldn’t do it without any of them.
It’s available to wishlist now on Steam, so if it sounds interesting or you’d like to check out more, please take a look. I would really appreciate it! For those who enjoyed the trailer or those who will watch the trailer, I’d just like to give a bit more excitement and say it was a very small portion of the game what we showed off and there’s a lot more surprises, a lot more drama and cool imagery and stuff that we’re very excited to show off at a later date, so thank you for the support so far and we’re really excited for the future!
Thank you very much.
I’m definitely looking forward to seeing more of Kitty Wampus’ cosmic horror adventure as development continues. The premise is interesting, the art style is captivating, and the trailer just had me hooked from the moment I first watched it. Knowing that it shows but a small portion of the planned full release, has me quivering with anticipation.
If you, too, are excited for the game’s future, make sure to check out the game on Steam!
This post was originally published on Indiecator.
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