Some games are announced, hyped, and forgotten. A few, however, quietly refuse to die. Thirteen years after its reveal (yes, 13 years), Routine, an eerie sci-fi horror set on a crumbling lunar base, is finally coming to life on 4 December.
Saved by Raw Fury
Over the years, Routine dropped off the radar. But while the world moved on, Lunar Software never quite let go. The creative team, juggling contract work to stay afloat, rebuilt the game from scratch more than once. They scrapped entire systems, redesigned the art direction, and rewrote its code to fit the modern era.
“We weren’t happy releasing something that didn’t feel right,” the team explained in a blogpost. “We’d rather disappear for a while than ship a version of Routine we’d regret.”
Hope arrived when indie publisher Raw Fury stepped in, offering not just funding but belief in the game. Known for championing unconventional, art-driven titles, games that regularly appear in best indie games lists, Raw Fury gave Lunar Software the breathing room to finally finish what they started.
With that support, Routine re-emerged in 2022 with a new trailer; it was still moody and terrifying, but far more polished. It also revealed a stunning collaboration: composer Mick Gordon, famed for horror shooters Doom and Prey, had joined to create the game's unnerving, metallic soundscape.
Indie horror, refined
If the game had been released a decade ago, it could well have been lost amidst the old trend for bombastic shooters, but its delay has made Routine feel more current; it remains a slow, claustrophobic experience and has more in common with remakes of Dead Space and Silent Hill 2 than it does the remade Doom or Halo 5. No guns are blazing here. Instead, players navigate the abandoned lunar outpost, armed only with an ancient diagnostic device, part scanner, part survival tool, as they try to uncover what went wrong.
The design speaks to the studio’s minimalist roots: analog tension, not digital overload. It's been called an '80s vision of a sci-fi future' in the same way Alien Rogue Incursion tapped into how artists envisioned the future. And that’s the charm of Routine. It’s an indie game that has aged not through technological advancements, but through perspective, built slowly and stubbornly.
Why Routine matters
We often hear how indie games can explode overnight and vanish just as fast. Routine’s decade-long journey feels almost rebellious. It’s a testament to creative endurance, to sticking with an idea long after the internet stops caring and the developer can just quietly get on with building a game they love.
If the final game delivers on its haunting promise, it could become a case study in indie resilience: proof that even after years of silence, a small team’s vision can still cut through the noise.
Routine launches December 4 on PC, Xbox Series X|S, and Game Pass.
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