Voidwood makes your voice the most dangerous thing in the forest
Santa Barbara Games has released new gameplay from its proximity-chat co-op survival horror game, coming to Steam in 2027.
Voidwood wants you to whisper for your life. Santa Barbara Games has released new gameplay from its upcoming PC co-op survival horror game, where talking can save your friends — or tell the thing hunting you exactly where to find them.
According to the announcement, the new footage shows players exploring and scavenging through a colourful cursed forest before darkness turns the outing into a much nastier proposition. The game supports one to four players, and communication is deliberately both a survival tool and a liability.
The central threat is The Beast, an apex predator that hunts by sound. Players cannot fight it yet, so the sensible plan is to regroup at camp, unlock new tools and choose very carefully when to speak, whisper or split up. No two nights are meant to play out the same way, with the forest changing beneath the team.
That proximity-chat hook gives Voidwood a wonderfully cruel twist: the person shouting directions may also be broadcasting dinner. It is the sort of co-op design that could produce genuine panic and accidental comedy, provided the audio detection is reliable rather than another game mistaking a desk fan for a doomed teammate.
The new gameplay is available alongside the game’s first playable appearance at PAX West, where attendees can try Voidwood at Booth No. 744. The game is coming to Steam in 2027 and is available to wishlist now. Santa Barbara Games says the team includes veterans of EA, Riot, Bethesda, Unity and Amazon, and is self-publishing the project.
The premise is sharper than another co-op horror game merely adding a monster to a dark wood. Making speech itself dangerous gives every conversation a cost, and that is exactly the sort of rule that can turn a routine scavenging run into a story worth retelling. Keep this one on the radar — just do not yell when the forest starts listening.
Our opinion
Voidwood has a properly nasty idea at its centre. The forest looks colourful enough to invite a relaxed co-op expedition, but making every spoken word a possible beacon gives the familiar survival-horror loop real teeth. We would not pre-order a 2027 game on a trailer alone; if the sound detection works, though, this could be the sort of multiplayer horror that creates stories rather than just jump scares.
Source: Santa Barbara Games / Plan of Attack press release supplied to iHeartGeek, Sept. 4, 2026.