Voidwood Is a New Co-Op Survival Horror Game Coming to PC

Aug 12, 2026

A peaceful forest can become a very different place once the sun goes down. That idea sits at the heart of Voidwood, a newly announced cooperative survival horror game where players spend their days preparing for what hunts them after dark.

Developer Santa Barbara Games has officially revealed Voidwood, a 1-4 player co-op survival horror game currently scheduled to launch on PC via Steam in 2027.

Set within a colorful but cursed forest, Voidwood revolves around a deceptively simple cycle: explore and gather supplies during daylight, then do whatever it takes to survive once night falls.

The catch? The forest’s most dangerous inhabitant isn’t something players can defeat.

They can only survive it.

Welcome to Voidwood

Players take on the roles of children who have become lost deep within the woods. During daylight hours, the forest appears surprisingly inviting, encouraging groups to venture farther from safety as they search for valuable supplies.

Those resources can be used to craft tools and prepare for the dangers ahead.

But every expedition creates a risk-versus-reward decision.

Pushing deeper into the forest could uncover better resources, but doing so also means spending precious daylight. The longer players remain away from safety, the less time they’ll have to find their way back before darkness arrives.

And darkness changes everything.

When night falls, the forest becomes a hunting ground.

You Can’t Kill The Beast

The biggest threat waiting within Voidwood is simply known as The Beast.

Described by Santa Barbara Games as an apex predator, The Beast isn’t a conventional video game enemy that players can eventually overpower with better equipment or enough ammunition.

It cannot be stopped.

Instead, players will have to hide, run, and work together if they hope to survive an encounter.

The Beast won’t be the only thing roaming the woods, either. Other twisted creatures emerge after dark, transforming the previously welcoming environment into a hostile landscape where even traveling from one location to another could become dangerous.

This emphasis on survival rather than combat could make Voidwood particularly interesting. Removing the ability to simply eliminate the game’s primary threat means players will have to rely on communication, awareness, and knowing when it’s time to run.

Your Microphone Could Save You — or Give You Away

Communication will play an especially important role in Voidwood thanks to its use of proximity voice chat.

Players will need to speak with one another to coordinate their movements, warn teammates about approaching threats, and determine how the group will escape.

There’s just one problem.

The forest is listening.

Sound travels through the environment, meaning the same conversation that helps keep your friends alive could potentially reveal your location.

Santa Barbara Games says spatial audio will influence how voices, footsteps, and other noises travel through the trees. That could create situations where simply hearing something in the distance becomes enough to make an entire group reconsider its plans.

It also creates a natural source of tension for multiplayer sessions. Players may desperately need to communicate while simultaneously knowing that remaining quiet could be the safer option.

According to founder and creative director Shawn Seibert, that relationship between communication and danger is central to the experience.

The studio says Voidwood was inspired by the childhood feeling of wonder that can quickly transform into dread, while its cooperative mechanics are built around the idea that communication can both save a team and expose it to danger.

Every Escape Makes the Next Run Different

Surviving the forest isn’t simply about making it through a single night.

Voidwood incorporates a progression system where items successfully carried out of the forest contribute toward future attempts.

Resources can be turned into camp upgrades, additional tools, and new strategies, gradually giving groups more options as they continue exploring.

That creates a familiar “one more run” structure where even an unsuccessful expedition could potentially teach players something useful about the forest.

The daytime exploration system should further reinforce that loop.

Do you head back early with the supplies you’ve already collected, or risk traveling deeper in hopes of finding something better?

The answer may seem obvious when the sun is shining.

It could become considerably less obvious when daylight begins disappearing and your group realizes just how far it has wandered from safety.

A Forest Designed to Lower Your Guard

One of the more interesting aspects of Voidwood is its visual direction.

Rather than immediately presenting players with the oppressive darkness and decaying environments commonly associated with survival horror, Santa Barbara Games is deliberately making its forest appear inviting during the day.

Warm lighting, vivid colors, and open pathways are intended to encourage exploration and give players a sense of security.

That comfort is temporary.

The contrast between daylight and night appears to be an important part of the game’s identity. A location that feels harmless during one portion of a run could become terrifying when players have to navigate the same area in darkness while something hunts them.

It’s a clever approach to environmental horror.

Instead of constantly surrounding players with obvious danger, Voidwood wants them to become comfortable enough to venture farther into the forest — and potentially regret that decision later.

Built by Industry Veterans

Voidwood is being developed and self-published by Santa Barbara Games, a small independent studio whose team includes developers with experience at EA, Riot Games, Bethesda, Unity, and Amazon.

The studio describes Voidwood as the type of cooperative survival horror experience its developers wanted to play with their own friends.

The combination of cooperative exploration, proximity chat, persistent progression, and an effectively unstoppable nighttime predator certainly gives the project an interesting foundation.

Its success will likely depend heavily on how those systems interact.

If communicating with teammates genuinely creates additional danger, and if The Beast remains unpredictable enough to prevent groups from simply memorizing an optimal strategy, Voidwood could produce the type of emergent multiplayer moments that make cooperative horror games particularly entertaining.

Voidwood Is Heading to PAX West

Players won’t have to wait until 2027 to get an early look at the game.

Santa Barbara Games plans to bring an early playable version of Voidwood to PAX West 2026, taking place in Seattle from September 4-7.

Attendees will be the first members of the public to play the game at Booth #744.

For now, that preview will be exclusive to the convention, with the developer confirming that the demo shown at PAX West will only be playable in person.

Survive the Day. Fear the Night.

Cooperative survival horror has become an increasingly crowded genre, but Voidwood has several ideas that could help distinguish it.

The contrast between its colorful daytime environments and dangerous nights immediately establishes an interesting identity, while the relationship between proximity chat and enemy awareness could make communication itself part of the survival mechanics.

Then there’s The Beast.

Making the game’s central predator something that cannot simply be killed changes the power dynamic considerably. Better equipment may improve your chances, but players will apparently never reach the point where the forest’s greatest threat stops being dangerous.

That means every sunset has the potential to matter.

Voidwood is currently scheduled to launch for PC via Steam in 2027 and is available to wishlist now.

Game: Voidwood
Developer/Publisher: Santa Barbara Games
Genre: Co-op Survival Horror
Players: 1-4
Platform: PC (Steam)
Release: 2027