Rusty Lake studio is back yet again: the latest game in the creepy point-and-click mystery series is due out sometime next year, but you can play a demo for Servant of the Lake on Steam now and experience the prequel story as a housekeeper for the Vanderboom family.
It's a little challenging for me to track exactly how many games are technically in the series at this point, but there are at least 3 other games that bear the Rusty Lake name, several more connected spin-off titles, and then a dozen or so Cube Escape games that the studio previously worked on. So Servant is the most recent in what's become a long tradition of surreal puzzle mysteries.
This is apparently the farthest back in time the story has gone yet: Servant of the Lake takes place decades before Rusty Lake: Roots, which itself had prequel elements, going back to the start of various character's lives. This time you're playing as a servant doing menial tasks around the Vanderboom mansion, and it's clear from the game's description (as well as the music and tone of the trailers) there are some sinister things hiding within those walls.
You'll start your work with simple housekeeping duties which it seems will eventually evolve into stranger tasks, assisting the family with their "alchemical ambitions" and experiments and "cleaning up the aftermath," whatever that means. The trailer appears to feature a mix of these more and less conventional point-and-click-puzzle tasks that are in store.
Servant of the Lake is expected to release in 2026, and the new demo just debuted for the ongoing Steam Next Fest this weekend. You can find it for download on the game's Steam page.
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