Hope in the City will launch November 10, 2026, on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox PC. The new Xbox trailer follows Hope Song as she searches for her parents and turns ordinary details into clues.
The game supports Xbox Play Anywhere. A single digital purchase lets players move between Xbox console and Xbox PC while keeping their progress. A PC version is also listed on Steam, where the opening chapter is available as a free demo.
Hope comes home to an empty apartment
Hope is 17 and lives in Shenyang, a large city in northeastern China. She returns from school and finds that her apartment has been ransacked. Her parents are gone, and they left no note or clear explanation.
The police cannot give her the answers she needs, so Hope starts looking into the disappearance herself. She is not a trained detective. She is an artist who notices shapes, objects and small changes other people may ignore.
Shenyang is more than a background for the mystery. Hope moves through neon-lit streets, quiet shops, apartments and alleys while speaking with people who may know more than they admit. The game uses a sharp, geometric art style that gives every place a slightly uneasy look.
The sketchbook is the main investigation tool
Hope records important objects and conversations as sketches. Players then connect those observations into theories. A useful theory can lead to a breakthrough and open another part of the case.
The trailer shows Hope searching rooms, reading documents and questioning people around the city. The interface keeps her drawings close to the current evidence, so the sketchbook is part of the investigation instead of a separate collection screen.
The story is non-linear, which means players may find information in different orders. One clue can change how another conversation looks, and a new theory may send Hope back to a place she already visited. Careful observation matters because the case becomes stranger as she learns more about her family.
Lofty Sky is building another story-led game
Hope in the City comes from Canadian studio Lofty Sky Games, the team behind Sky of Tides and the animated documentary Eternal Spring. Lofty Sky is developing the game, while Lofty Sky Entertainment and NAGA Games are listed as publishers on Steam.
The new trailer confirms the November date for Xbox and gives console players their first clear look at the sketchbook system. Steam players can already try the demo before the full release.
Hope in the City arrives November 10 on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox PC. The Steam page still lists its date as to be announced, so the developer or Valve may update that store listing closer to launch.
