I played the demo for “Nothing Strange Here” by Dandelion Developers, a small indie studio based in Sweden. The demo is available on Steam; the full game is scheduled to be released in early 2026. I played it on a PC with a controller.
The Backstory of Nothing Strange Here
The game begins with a letter from your Uncle asking you to work for his newspaper. Next thing you know, you are racing there in a car, driving really crazy! You meet up with your Uncle and begin the tutorial. Usually, I need a lot of handholding when I begin a game, but this tutorial was explained nicely, and I understood what to do and how to do it. Woo hoo!
In the tutorial, your Uncle shows you a journal where you record everything. I really liked that journal! It has complete details on every quest, plus a recap of the dialogue about the quest. That’s great for forgetful players like myself.
Also, for players who don’t put in a lot of time per day and need a reminder of what to do when they get back to the game. (also myself!) I also really appreciate how the instructions for the controls stay on the screen because – forgetful!!! I’m not sure if they will be there for the entire game, but as long as they are there for a while, players like me can memorize them after a while.
The World You Inhabit
It’s an open-world game, and boy, are those worlds fantastic!! The demo I played had 3 distinct worlds, but the development team is already updating the demo and adding another smaller area for a better play experience.
There is a town which is bright, colorful and really interesting to look at. As fantastically cute as the buildings all look, we will not be going inside any of them. However, while in the town, the soundtrack plays funky jazz music, and that’s really neat.
There’s also a wooded area, which is detailed and very beautiful. It has a darker area and features glow-in-the-dark plants. It seems very mysterious to me, and I’m curious to see what it’s all about. While in the woods, I could hear birds chirping and other forest sounds. Nice!!
As I explored the woods, I found some areas that were barricaded off and some bridges that were incomplete. In the final game, I will be able to enter these places and even some new places that were not in the demo. I noticed in one area of the demo, there were some fires behind the barricades. What’s going on here? Something strange, perhaps? I’ll have to wait for the final game to find out!
And there is a mountain area which took me a little while to find!! It seems similar to the wooded area but with more hills. I was there in the night, and it was very quiet. As daylight approached, I heard more bird calls. Very nice! The dev team is in the process of adding more sound effects, voice acting and music into the game, so expect it to be even better in the final version.
Also, in the final version of the game, there will be more areas to explore. When released, Nothing Strange Here will have 3 new large areas and 2 new small ones. Plus, there will be more quests scattered about. I look forward to this very much!!
The People and Animals That You Will Encounter
The town has a variety of zany-looking NPC residents, and some of them have equally zany comments when I approach them. What imaginations the devs have!! Some of these NPCs gave me quests which were conveniently logged into my journal. My Uncle also gave me a quest, which I believe will be part of the town lore – it seems there’s a mysterious person in town who has stolen a collection of old news articles about the town.
He’s sent a message saying that he wants the townspeople to forget the past. Fortunately, my Uncle had backed up those articles digitally, so nothing was lost forever. He sent me to speak with the Mayor about this. The Mayor tells me he’s not sure who stole the articles, but he knows it was no one from town. Hmmm, something strange is definitely going on here!!
At one point, I saw an NPC out of the corner of my eye. As I approached, they ran away, but I could see they’d left a can of paint, spilt paint, and they had been painting on the side of a building. They left a trail of footprints (made with the spilt paint) for me to follow. It ended in a dead end, but there was another large paint spill there. Very strange things are going on in this town!
The game has a day/night cycle, which does not affect you personally, but certain things only happen at night or in the day. You don’t have to sleep or eat, and you seem to have no energy requirements. I really like that! Also, in the nighttime the street lamps come on, which I thought was a nice touch. There are multi colored butterflies here and there. I wonder what that’s about? I love how there are garden gnomes all around town and the woods, and also plenty of cats to pet! There are a few easter eggs hidden in the game. I found a few of them, but I’m sure there are more to find. So many cool things to see in this game.
The level of detail throughout the story so far is fantastic!! At one point, an NPC told me that he was teaching the local capybaras to play the violin. Later, as I walked in the woods, I found these capybaras at a campfire, and the violin was nearby. Wow!
Final Thoughts
After an hour of really fun gameplay with the demo for Nothing Strange Here, I got confused and could not figure out what to do next. I reached out to a dev who replied quickly with some hints. I appreciated that and applaud it. I always feel that a dev team that is quick to help a player is a dev team that is committed to their game. I was also told that the UI needs some work in areas such as the ones I had trouble with, and it will be fixed for the final game. Possibly by the updated demo!
Last, I tend to get lost a lot! I mentioned that to the dev, and I was assured they are working on a map for the final game. Phew! There are a lot of really cool paths to follow, though with side trails, bridges and other features. It’s a lot of fun to just wander around, looking at everything. But a map would be appreciated!
I had a nice conversation with one of the game devs and was told, “We are a new small indie studio composed of freshly graduated students”. They hope to port Nothing Strange Here to the Switch one day, but can’t make any promises.
I played the demo for close to 3 hours. That’s plenty of time to get a feel for the game. I love it!! I highly recommend you try the demo of Nothing Strange Here too, and keep in mind – the game is only going to get better, even the demo will improve. In the final game, there will be significant UI improvements, including a map. I really look forward to the release of Nothing Strange Here.
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