FIRST SIGNAL | INDIE DISCOVERY | PC / WINDOWS
Most versions of Cinderella tell us the hardest part of the evening is getting to the ball before the clock strikes twelve. HAEON STUDIO has other ideas. Its upcoming 2D point-and-click adventure, Wretched Tales: Cinderella, takes a story we’ve known since childhood and quietly asks what happens when the chores, the house and the people inside it stop behaving the way they should.
It is not an action-packed reimagining with glass-slipper combat and a health bar. The studio is aiming for something less comfortable: an observation-led puzzle adventure in which ordinary tasks gradually become strange procedures. You’ll need to examine a room carefully, notice small reactions and decide which item belongs where. And sometimes the answer is precisely the action you’d rather not take.
A fairy tale with a few things out of place
The familiar structure is still there. Cinderella has household work to finish, preparations to make and a ball to reach. But the puzzles do not simply ask you to sweep up or tidy a room. The developer describes tasks such as planting a hazel branch in a graveyard and preparing food for the family, with each action taking place in scenes that grow increasingly unsettling.
There is a deliberately old-fashioned charm to the presentation. Each scene is illustrated in 2D and viewed from a fixed perspective, with characters and objects communicating through their reactions rather than constant dialogue. A portrait may look a little different from the last time you saw it. An item might react when used somewhere unexpected. You’re encouraged to look again, then look a little closer.
That is a promising foundation for a mystery because the player is asked to learn a visual language, rather than wait for another character to recite the answer. Of course, the line between an intriguing clue and an obscure one is thin. The trick will be making the eventual solution feel earned, even when the world itself seems determined to make you uncomfortable.
Puzzles that use the room, not just your inventory
According to HAEON STUDIO’s description, interactions take place directly in the environment. You collect objects and use them on parts of each scene, paying attention to their position, appearance and reactions. Instead of a traditional inventory-combination puzzle, the player has to understand how the room works and which action changes it.
There is something deliciously unnerving about that premise. A candle, a dish or a flowerpot might be perfectly ordinary in another game. Here, simply recognising an object may be the least useful thing you can do. The interesting question is what it has become, and why it responds when you interfere.
In our new Behind the Signal interview, HAEON STUDIO explains how testing the public demo changed its approach to puzzle readability. The team found that some players had the correct items but couldn’t tell where to use them. Rather than confusing obscurity with difficulty, the developers are refining those visual cues while trying to preserve the sense of discovery.
A free demo, with the full tale still to come
A free Windows demo is available on Steam, and the studio has confirmed there is no embargo on coverage of its publicly released portion. The full game is currently targeting Q1 2027, but no exact launch date has been announced. This remains a work in progress, with puzzles and presentation still being refined in response to feedback.
Our interest here is in how seriously the team is treating the relationship between horror and puzzle design. The story is already familiar, so the surprise has to come from the details: an odd expression, an object in the wrong place, or the moment you realise that solving the next puzzle may require doing something decidedly unpleasant.
Our First Signal
Wretched Tales: Cinderella has a strong hook for players who enjoy atmospheric point-and-click adventures. It does not need to rewrite the entire Cinderella story in the first five minutes. It merely needs to make the ordinary chores feel increasingly wrong, then give you enough clues to understand why. That is an intriguing invitation, even if the invitation itself might be best left unopened after dark.
Find the game: Wretched Tales: Cinderella on Steam, including the free public Windows demo. For the creative thinking behind the game, read our full HAEON STUDIO developer interview.
Editorial disclosure: First Signal is a developer-sourced spotlight, not a hands-on review. The Coloured Static Press team has not claimed to play the demo or assessed its performance. Three original in-game images were supplied by HAEON STUDIO for editorial use. We have respected the studio’s request to avoid spoilers beyond the public demo. No review score has been assigned.