A serendipitous meeting in the West Hall revealed Sip Sip Soup’s debut project: a haunted-mansion dungeon crawler in which keeping secrets from ‘The Vessel’ is the only way to survive.
Sometimes the most exciting games at the Game Developers Conference aren’t found underneath the blinding lights of the main expo floor. Sometimes, they find you while you are just trying to catch your breath.
After wrapping up a meeting and grabbing a seat in the common area of the West Hall, a young developer named Noemi sat down next to me. She was quietly observing a conversation happening at our table, taking notes, and networking. When I mentioned I was part of the media covering the event, her face lit up. She handed me one of the most distinctive business cards I have ever seen—designed to open like a miniature Barnes & Noble book—and introduced me to her studio’s debut project.
Fresh out of college, Noemi and her newly formed indie team at Sip Sip Soup are transforming a former school project into a fully-fledged indie title called Ratacombs.
It is weird, highly deceptive, and has “breakout indie hit” written all over it.
The Premise: Deceiving the Vessel
Ratacombs is stepping into the social deduction arena, but it is bringing a completely fresh mechanic to the table. Designed to support 3 to 8 players, the game aims to capture the paranoia of Among Us mixed with the eerie, cooperative dungeon-crawling vibes of games like Content Warning or Lethal Company.
However, the core loop features a brilliant twist. The game takes place in the winding, dimly lit corridors of a haunted mansion. Everyone in the lobby is secretly trying to influence and manipulate one specific player, designated as “The Vessel.” The catch? If The Vessel figures out who the other players actually are and what they are plotting, the game ends immediately.
It is a game of whispers, backstabbing, and behind-the-back communication as players roam the dark halls trying to execute their hidden agendas without tipping their hand. Sip Sip Soup specifically designed this format to make it easier for smaller friend groups to jump in and start scheming without needing a massive 10-person lobby.
1400s Rodent Fashion and Reaper Gods
While the gameplay mechanics are intriguing, the art direction is what truly sells the experience.
The early concept sketches and pre-alpha screenshots showcase a delightfully bizarre aesthetic. You play as bipedal, pixel-art rats wandering through a gothic, stained-glass mansion. The character designs draw heavy inspiration from 1400s European fashion, allowing players to dress their rodents as medieval peasants, jesters, nobles, and robed cultists.
Looming over the entire experience is the “Reaper God”—a terrifyingly surreal, omnipresent feline deity hungry for rats. The blend of cute, hand-drawn rodent character portraits with oppressive, dark pixel-art environments gives the game a uniquely distinctive identity.
The Team Behind the Madness
Ratacombs originally began as a school project before evolving into something much larger. The core team at Sip Sip Soup currently consists of:
- Noemi: Developer, Artist, and Studio Owner
- Kati: Lead Artist and Animator
- Petrus: Audio Designer and Sound Effects
The team also gives special thanks to Darren and Lia, original members of the school project who stayed on after the semester ended to help design shaders, sound effects, and the current capsule art.
The Search for a Publisher
Currently, Ratacombs is in its early stages of development. The team is incredibly passionate, but they are actively seeking the right publisher and PR agency to help them refine the experience and bring it to the masses.
Given the massive success of quirky, proximity-voice-chat-driven multiplayer games over the last few years, Ratacombs is exactly the kind of project that could explode on Twitch and YouTube with the right backing. We at TheBigBois will certainly be doing our part to keep a close eye on their progress.
If you are a publisher looking for your next multiplayer hit, or just a gamer wanting to get in on the ground floor of playtesting, you can check out their official site at sipsipsoup.com or join their Discord community.