Something calls from beneath the ice in Penguin Colony

A reimagining of Lovecraftian horror where you observe humanity’s unraveling from an unexpected perspective

We’re proud to welcome ORIGAME DIGITAL, the creator of the award-winning Umurangi Generation (IGF’s  Excellence in Narrative and Seumas McNally Grand Prize), and their latest game Penguin Colony to the Fellow Traveller label. Penguin Colony begins with a simple, strange premise:

Cosmic horror, through the indifferent eyes of a penguin.

The year is 1939. Two rival human expeditions arrive in Antarctica, drawn by the call of something ancient. One seeks to claim it, to harness a power they cannot possibly understand. The other has come to stop them, to return the being to its slumber for another hundred years. Neither of them live here.

But you do, because you are a penguin. One of many.

At first it’s just wind, a flare in the distance over ice that seems to stretch endlessly in every direction. You can hear your fellow penguins and the quiet shuffle of your colony going about its daily life.

As you wander the frozen landscape, sliding across the ice, swimming through dark waters, moving between vast, open spaces, you begin to follow the humans.

At first, it’s curiosity as you catch strange sounds, unfamiliar movement, and new things in a place that rarely changes. Threaded through it all is a voice. A person whose mind has fractured under the weight of what they have encountered. Time no longer moves forward for them as past, present, and future collapse into one.

Penguin Colony draws from At the Mountains of Madness and The Shadow Out of Time. It’s about something ancient being uncovered and observed by humans that have no way to truly understand it.

You slide across the Antarctic ice, swim through freezing waters, and waddle through vast, open spaces that feel indifferent to your presence but a part of every day. As you explore you’ll unlock different penguins, each with their own abilities, limitations, and ways of interacting with the world.

Penguin Colony is built around open-ended exploration, there are no strict paths nor any prescribed order. The Antarctic stretches out before you as a place of beauty and silence. To some it would seem eerie, but not to you.

For you, life continues as it always has. Because you are a penguin.

A playable demo will be available during the Summer Game Fest window, as part of Steam Next Fest and our Story Rich Showcase. Later this year, you’ll be able to step into Antarctica yourself when Penguin Colony launches on PC via Steam and Nintendo Switch 2.

For more on Penguin Colony, wishlist the game on Steam, check out the ORIGAME DIGITAL website, follow the developer on Bluesky, and Fellow Traveller on Bluesky, TikTok, Instagram, Threads, or join the official Fellow Traveller Discord.