Look Outside is now available on Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 following its October 30th console launch. The survival horror RPG was created by Québec developer Francis Coulombe and published by Devolver Digital.
A mysterious event transforms anyone who looks out a window into a monster, leaving you trapped inside an apartment building. You venture into the halls for supplies, fight creatures that used to be your neighbours and try to figure out what's happening without becoming one of them.
Turn-Based Combat Inside a Monster-Filled Apartment Building
Your apartment is the place to regroup between trips through the building. Outside its door, you search for food, weapons and other supplies, and meet residents who might be able to help. Some can become allies, and there are several possible endings to discover.
Fights use turn-based combat rather than real-time action. Distance matters when facing enemies, and you can use makeshift weapons and items found in the building. There are more than 150 creatures to encounter and around a dozen boss fights. The official game description lists 10 to 12 hours of play.
That combat has an older inspiration. In an April 2025 interview with Makson Lima, Coulombe pointed to Sweet Home, the 1989 Famicom horror RPG that combined a haunted-house setting with turn-based battles, puzzles and resource management. He wondered how survival horror might have developed if more games had continued using RPG combat instead of moving toward real-time action.
Back at your apartment, you can cook, craft tools, play games and get to know the people you've brought home. Coulombe wanted those routines to make the apartment feel safe compared with the hallways outside. He removed chores such as cleaning and washing dishes because they made that part of the game tedious.
How Québec Developer Francis Coulombe Created Look Outside
Coulombe made the first version of Look Outside for Hawktober Horrors in October 2024, using RPG Maker to create the prototype in one month. That early version is still available on itch.io, where it credits Eric Shumaker for the music. It was a smaller, unfinished game, but the attention it received online encouraged Coulombe to expand it.
He was already in contact with Devolver Digital about two other projects when he showed the publisher Look Outside. Devolver was interested, and Coulombe enlisted friends from the indie development community to turn the prototype into a commercial release. He told Lima that he'd expected another month or two of work. It ended up taking five.
Coulombe had also been developing a larger horror RPG, Malison: The Cursed City, before Look Outside took his attention. In that same 2025 interview, he said he hoped the smaller game would introduce more people to his work and help fund Malison.
His influences reach beyond video games. Coulombe grew up reading Franco-Belgian comics and identified the surreal comic Philémon as a major influence on his artwork. He'd also been drawing elaborate monsters for years, including for the project that became Malison.
Coulombe is one of many game developers working in Québec. The 2026 Quebec Games Celebration featured more than 300 games developed or published in the province.
Look Outside originally launched on PC in March 2025, and MP2 Games handled the console ports. Coulombe started with a month-long game jam and a very strange apartment building. Now you can find out what's waiting behind its doors on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation.
Jon Scarr
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