Santa Barbara Games Reveals Voidwood Gameplay at PAX West Ahead of 2027 Launch 

SANTA BARBARA, CA, September 5, 2026 — Most co-op horror games encourage you to yell frantically into your headset when things go sideways. Santa Barbara Games is taking the exact opposite approach.

In newly released gameplay footage for their upcoming PC title Voidwood, the indie studio proves that speaking out loud is often the fastest way to get your entire squad killed.

The game, which is making its public debut at PAX West this week, forces one to four players into an ever-changing cursed forest. The basic loop seems straightforward enough on paper.

By day, you wander through surprisingly colorful landscapes to scavenge gear and unlock tools at your base camp. But once night falls, the atmosphere shifts completely. That is when an apex predator known as “The Beast” comes out to hunt—and it tracks players entirely by sound.

The mechanics rely heavily on proximity voice chat, transforming team coordination into a massive liability. You have to whisper to share strategies, but if you panic and scream, you give away your exact position to something you cannot actually fight yet.

“One of the things we really wanted to do with Voidwood was make team communication something you need to survive, but also your greatest liability,” explains Shawn Seibert, Founder and Creative Director at Santa Barbara Games, in an official blog post.

Seibert noted that players will constantly have to balance grouping up to talk against splitting up in absolute silence when night drops.

The development team behind the project brings serious industry credentials to the table. Founded by veterans with past stints at EA, Riot Games, Bethesda, Unity, and Amazon, Santa Barbara Games is self-publishing the title as a passion project built around mechanics they actually wanted to play themselves.

You can catch the team in person at PAX West Booth #744 to test out the mechanics firsthand.

While an official release is slated for 2027 on Steam, players can already jump onto the official Voidwood Discord channel or check out updates directly via their YouTube page. Just remember to mute your microphone when night falls.