Moomintroll: Winter's Warmth is out on PS5 today, and it's the quiet game this loud month needed

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night, in a house where everyone else is fast asleep, and felt like the only person in the world? That's the whole premise of Moomintroll: Winter's Warmth, and honestly, it got me before I'd seen a single screenshot.

The game launches on PlayStation 5 today, September 18. It comes from Hyper Games, a small indie studio in Norway - people who, as they cheerfully point out themselves, know a thing or two about snow. It's their second trip to Moominvalley after Snufkin: Melody of Moominvalley, which was one of those gentle little games I kept recommending to anyone who'd stand still long enough.

This time you play as Moomintroll himself. He wakes from hibernation far too early, winter is still sitting heavily on the valley, and his family won't stir. So off he goes, alone, to bring spring back and find his best friend Snufkin again. If you've read Tove Jansson's winter story, the setup will feel very familiar - and if you haven't, that's fine too, because it's the kind of tale that works whether you're seven or thirty-seven.

The studio describes it as a cozy *and* melancholic puzzle adventure, and I love that they didn't drop the second word. The Moomins were never just cute. There's always been a little ache under the roundness - loneliness, odd strangers, the feeling that the world is bigger and stranger than your warm house. Too-Ticky shows up here, a character Jansson based on her own life partner, and there are nods to the Ancestor and the Hattifatteners, which tells me the team has actually read the books rather than just borrowed the faces.

Two details I'm properly excited about. First, the look: a watercolour style that blends 3D shapes with painted 2D elements, aiming for Jansson's own illustrations, presented like an interactive storybook. Second, the snow deforms as you move through it. That sounds like a small thing. It isn't. Anyone who's watched a child stomp a path across an untouched garden knows that leaving tracks is half the joy of winter.

Who is it for? Families, first of all - this looks like a lovely one to play with a kid beside you, passing the controller or just reading along. But also anyone who's a bit worn out by a September that's been all claws, swords and boss fights. Not every game has to raise your pulse.

A few honest caveats: the announcement I'm working from doesn't mention a price or how long the adventure runs, and it only talks about the PS5 version, so I won't guess at any of that. I'd check the store page before you buy.

I know what I'm doing this weekend, though. Tea, blanket, nephew, snow.

Image: yrjö jyske / CC BY 4.0, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_colors_of_the_evening_from_snowy_forest_-_Finland.jpg