El Paso, Elsewhere developer Strange Scaffold has hit it big, inking a five-game deal with indie publisher Frosty Pop. The deal comprises the funding and support of four new original titles from Strange Scaffold and a bespoke mobile version of El Paso, Elsewhere. Not only that, but Strange Scaffold has also announced a release date for its upcoming horror fantasy kidnapping simulator Life Eater, which will launch on PC via Steam on April 16.

Inspired by the Saw franchise and the apocalyptic paranoia of 10 Cloverfield Lane, Life Eater takes place in suburbia, and the player character is a modern-day druid holding down a dead-end job to pay for his true vocation: conducting the annual ritual that keeps the world from ending. To delay the apocalypse, he reluctantly kidnaps and sacrifices human beings every year. Obviously, acquiring these sacrifices and learning the intimate details of their lives forms an uncomfortable, compelling gameplay loop, particularly when the protagonist doesn’t know if the threat he’s attempting to keep at bay is even real.

“Being recognized as a talent who can secure this kind of support while the video game industry is on fire is an immense honor, and we don’t take it for granted,” says Strange Scaffold’s Xalavier Nelson Jr. “Going forward, Strange Scaffold isn’t seeking arbitrary growth, risking the lives of our collaborators and the quality of our projects in the balance. We’re doing more of what we do best — creating focused, weird, and wonderful games — with a partner that shares our production philosophy and belief in serving our players.”

The five-game deal, which is planned to extend into 2025, also includes a pair of unannounced games: an after-hours library horror game and a co-op kaiju horror cooking title. More information on both of these titles is expected at a later date.