Curse of Resthaven Details Reveal Three Timelines and a Six-Day Loop

Curse of Resthaven, Hilltop Studios' gothic horror mystery built on a six-day time loop, is out now on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC for $19.99, and studio director Scott Christian has laid out how to survive it on Xbox Wire. The game launched October 29 from publisher Digital Bandidos.

Players control Ambrose, the island colony's newly appointed governor, who has six days to find his missing niece Amalia before Resthaven is destroyed and the calendar resets. A rough first week in office, repeated indefinitely.

"We make games with a particular emphasis on strong characters, intricate storytelling, unique mechanics, and the occasional musical interlude," Christian wrote. He spent 15 years as a composer and conductor, mostly in theatre, before the Toronto studio's debut, the comedic gate-guard sim Lil' Guardsman.

The details

• Released: October 29, 2026, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox on PC
• Price: $19.99
• Publisher: Digital Bandidos
• Structure: three timelines with different outcomes; reaching all three unlocks a fourth, true ending
• Genre mix: narrative adventure with trading sim, deckbuilder, and roguelike elements

How does the time loop work?

Each six-day cycle resets the townspeople's routines, but Ambrose keeps what he learns. Facts gathered in one loop open new dialogue options, interrogation topics, and paths in the next, and Christian is clear that players aren't expected to crack the mystery in a single run. New Game+ adds a déjà vu feature that fast-tracks content players have already seen.

A journal tracks active leads, and an unlockable timeline marks key events across the cycle, with "???" standing in for ones not yet discovered. The town map shows where characters are during the day, swapping a question mark for a portrait once Ambrose has spoken to them. Optional secrets, including collectible moth relics, reward exploring on foot.

What happens outside the town walls?

Wilderness expeditions run on a card-based narrative system, with encounters drawn from a pool so events shift from run to run. What players find out there feeds back into the investigation in town.

Behind the scenes, Hilltop sorts its clues into bronze, silver, and gold tiers: bronze for basic hints, silver for specifics, and rare gold clues that spell out the next step in a lead. Those tiers are internal design labels, not something shown in-game.

Why it matters

Curse of Resthaven is Hilltop Studios' second game and a genre shift from Lil' Guardsman's comedic fantasy, combining a time-loop mystery with trading, deckbuilding, and roguelike systems across three timelines and a hidden fourth ending.