Hello, everyone! We are so excited to introduce you to The Final Cut of Lilith Cunningham. Today, we take another step deeper into our connected universe, The Worlds Across the Causeway, with the announcement of our second game. And if you’ll be at PAX West this weekend, we are thrilled to have been selected as part of the “intensely curated” PAX Rising showcase!
The Final Cut of Lilith Cunningham is a desert-noir detective adventure inspired by the surreal works of David Lynch, the music of Lord Huron, and the stylings of strange fiction.
You’ll solve numerous puzzles with tactile detective mechanics and world-altering gameplay. Using a mystical film reel called The City of Dreams, featuring full-motion video (FMV), you’ll need to edit the movie and tear through the very fabric of reality. But every edit comes with consequences, as changing the reel also changes the world, and more importantly the people, around Lilith.
For those of you who have been with us since January 2025 when we released The Haunting of Joni Evers, we are so grateful for your support, kind words, and enthusiasm. You ain’t seen nothing yet.
If you’re joining us for the first time, welcome! You’re about to take a step into the strange and unknown. And we want you to feel at home in our surreal corner of the world. You’re probably wondering if you need to go purchase and play The Haunting of Joni Evers to have a complete experience when we launch next year. We’d be most grateful if you’d do that, sure, and it’s currently 50% off for the first time if you want to. But you don’t need to.
One of our studio creative pillars is, “Every story is an entry point.” While our stories exist in the shared Worlds Across the Causeway, we never want players to feel like they need to “catch up” just to have the experience that excites them.
If you’ve played Joni, your investment will be rewarded with connections that enhance (rather than gate) the experience. Though, there is ample reason to (re)visit The Haunting of Joni Evers, as today we’ve released the “Lilith” update. Peppered throughout Joni are new hints about what might be happening at the Alpine Movie Manor Hotel and Drive-In. Can you find them all?
Before we sign off and finish packing for PAX West, our studio director, Kjartan Kennedy, has written a letter for you. Thank you again for your support!
Over the last year, Causeway Studios has gone through a transformational period culminating in today’s announcement of our second game, The Final Cut of Lilith Cunningham.
Since we shipped The Haunting of Joni Evers in January 2025 (50% off on Steam now for the first time!), we have watched our community grow, our first game win awards (did we mention it’s on sale now?), and the vision for our second game take shape. Our studio ownership has grown from our creative director Greg Rogers and myself to include our art director and long-time collaborator Brianna Jenkins, our director of production Manda Farough, and our director of operations and publishing Mike Futter.
We’ve spent this past year in pre-production: writing the story, establishing the vibe, learning from Joni, and raising the bar for our games. Everyone on the team has done incredible creative and artistic work, leaning into the weird and the surreal as we’ve refined our game concept and doubled down on feeling like a detective caught in strange and supernatural circumstances.
The Final Cut of Lilith Cunningham is an ambitious project for us. If you told me a year ago we’d be on-set filming full-motion video and building a game that has a conspiracy mystery board (red string and all), well… I’d have been both excited and a little nervous at the evolution from Joni. Today, I’m extremely excited and not the least bit surprised.
Greg and I knew how we wanted to build this studio and our games from the beginning, and despite having that planned out, I’ve seen this team and this game come together in a way that exceeds anything I could have hoped for. We are beyond grateful to our partners, Phantom Friends, who understood our vision immediately and we’re absolutely thrilled to be on this journey with them!
What we’re showing at PAX West as part of PAX Rising this weekend is just the beginning. If you’re in Seattle, please stop by. The Alpine Movie Manor Hotel and Drive-In is waiting for your reservation.
None of this would be possible without you and your love for strange tales. Remember… nothing is as it seems. Question everything. And don’t forget to look over your shoulder… just in case.
Until we meet again along the Causeway,
Kjartan Kennedy, Studio Director