Aaron Foster started working on the moon-based survival horror game ROUTINE just after finishing University in the late aughts, and announced the project in 2012. The game was started as a mesh of all the things that stuck to the back of Foster’s mind–inspired by the grungy tactility of retro sci-fi greats like Alien and principally, of course, the moon. It was said to release only a couple years after its initial reveal, but delay after delay occurred, and Foster headed Lunar Software–which was comprised mainly of his partner and friend, who were all roommates at one point–started to feel the financial strain and time suck of the project, so development grinded to a halt in 2016. According to the developers:

We were surviving on an extremely tight budget… we had let ourselves, our friends & family, as well as all of our supporters & fans down… We struggled and didn’t know how to deal with that or how to fix it.

Lunar Software, studio though it may be, was originally funded entirely through friends, family, and the coffers of the devs, and did not resume development entirely until a deal was reached in 2020 with publisher Raw Fury after trying to sell them on a smaller project they were working on. Then, with financial backing secured, the game was “re-revealed” in 2022, and now released as of today.

ROUTINE is a first-person experience that takes place on a moon base that, as the player discovers, has become a desolate creaking horror house stalked by rogue machines, which has been brought to life by the terrifyingly excellent sound-design of Audio Leads N.J. Apostol and Mick Gordon. Armed with just a C.A.T.–not a weapon, mind you, you can’t get out of it all that easily–the player must navigate through the station using only your wits. According to the Steam page, the game does not assist you with any sort of directions playing through its non-linear world, so spatially-challenged players might need to prepare themselves for a puzzle. And of course, you’ll need to find your way around while trying not to suffer an excruciating death at the cold metal hands of a lumbering Type-05. In space, no one can hear you scream; but if you’re playing ROUTINE, your whole house probably will.