Twin Peaks-inspired spooky private eye puzzler Silver Pines is set to deliver missing musician mystery next year

Watch out. There’s a musician mystery afoot. They’ve gone missing, mysteriously. So says Silver Pines, a Twin Peaks-inspired survival horror puzzler that’s set to arrive next year, according to an announcement trailer that’s just barged into my house in a trench coat, waving a gun about and demanding to know whether I did it.

No, I respond calmly, there are no missing musicians around here. For a moment, I fear he might notice the outline of a guitar’s headstock buried under the carpet. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, he says, as all detective-ish types do. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm…

I try to distract him by asking for more information about Silver Pines. It’s by developers Wych Elm, he says. You must roam the small town filled with horrors to survive, doing puzzles to unlock different areas and managing your resources. Arrrrrrggghhhhhh, I scream, resource management! Shhhhh, he replies, let me read you the plot synopsis to calm you down:

Private investigator Red Walker finds himself in Silver Pines, a place half-abandoned, half-forgotten, in the middle of nowhere on a job to track down vanished musician Eddie Velvet. As the case begins to reveal a dark past, Walker soon slips into a strange and nightmarish descent beyond his control.

The exploration’s a bit Metroidvaniay, he claims, and you’ll need to find better tools and weapons to open up more bits. Ok, I reply, the roaming around a small town as a moody investigator clearly going through some shit intrigues me, even if this certainly isn’t pitching itself to be as Disco Elysiumy in an RPG sense as my brain sort of wishes it was.

It’s set to arrive at some point in 2026, he says, and you can wishlist it on Steam. Nice, I respond, hoping the ensuing awkward silence will drive him away. He turns towards the door, takes a few steps, and brutally stubs his toe on the telltale head. Watch out, I whisper as he writhes on the floor.