THE DISAPPEARANCE
narrative adventure game for all audiences, cinematic and heartfelt,
set in the cultural and historical heritage of the Basque Country and the Landes
y wife and I have a rule: we never leave without our children. Except once. That evening, having left our six-year-old son with his grandfather, the boy realised we were gone — and set off alone, as night fell, to find us. He could have vanished at the top of a hill, had a neighbour not raised the alarm in time.
This true story, told with laughter the next day, never really left our minds. What if the child had gone past that hill?"Adur: The Disappearance" is an answer to that question, told as a fable. The game explores 24 hours in a child's flight and the pursuit led by his grandfather, always further south, at the gates of the mountains and of time.
But this disappearance is not only that of a child: it is also that of the stories, myths and legends that shaped the South-West and the border mountains — and that of the bonds woven between generations.
Narrative adventure, cinematic 2.5D platformer, cultural adventure
Target playtime — About 5 hours
Audience — For all ages, a family and intergenerational experience
Platforms — PC (Steam), then home consoles
Language — Original voice acting in French and Basque (Euskara), French and international subtitles
Music — Original score blending traditional Basque-Landes instruments with modern textures
Adur, 6 years old: an adventurer, sometimes a little fearful. Never goes anywhere without Bubu.
Aitatxi, 66 years old: doesn’t like anyone messing with his family — or his pala.
Malika, 16 years old: loves tattoos, surfing, and saving people.
Mari, 6,000 years old. A goddess to some, Nature itself to others.
Adur, six years old, is the heart of the story. Guided by forces he doesn't yet understand, he runs off into the wild in search of his parents, clutching his faithful stuffed companion, Bubu. With no weapon and no power, his only strength is his ingenuity — and the reassuring glow of his comfort toy to see him through the dark.
Aitatxi, his grandfather, is a simple man marked by the loss of his late wife. His nighttime search for his grandson forces him to face his own doubts and regrets. Armed with nothing but a wooden pala, he embodies quiet strength and the resilience of love.
Adur and Aitatxi never cross paths on screen before the story's conclusion — yet their fates are deeply bound across time and space: every step the child takes by day shapes the path his grandfather will have to walk by night.
The player alternately controls the child and the grandfather:
- Adur moves forward through stealth, cunning and observation, guided by Bubu's reassuring light
- Aitatxi confronts his doubts at a bolder pace, pala in hand.The two timelines are linked: Adur's choices permanently shape the terrain Aitatxi will have to cross in his search.
The game makes a deliberate choice for a kind, forgiving experience, with no frustrating "Game Over".
he art direction rests on a deliberate contrast: characters with clean, almost naive lines, moving through richly textured, realistic settings — Pyrenean rock, the rust of old forges, the shifting light of the coastline. This hybrid look grounds the tale in a tangible reality, built in Unreal Engine 5.
The soundscape is just as carefully crafted: field recordings made directly in the region (Landes pines, the ocean, mountain wind, forges), lead voice acting in Basque for a cultural authenticity rare in indie video games, and a bespoke original score by Rémi Lonca.
Adur's adventure draws its strength from the stories, beliefs and real history of the South-West and the Basque Country: the agro-pastoral and mythological heritage of the Pyrenees, the industrial and working-class past of the forges and the coastline, and the living memory of a border crossed by generations of stories. Every setting in the game is conceived as a sincere tribute to this land and to the people who made it what it is.
Adur: The Disappearance is carried by a small, independent and passionate team, with the ambition of an international production.
Supporting this project means contributing to:
- showcasing a regional cultural heritage too rarely told in video games;
- building an independent creative sector in the South-West, in partnership with cross-border collaborators;
- a work designed from the outset to be shared as a family, in schools and libraries, beyond the commercial market alone.
Supporting Adur's development also means supporting the growth of Kabengo! Games studio in Aquitaine, and its ambitious, all-audience projects for authentic, dreamlike narrative adventures.
The game is currently in pre-production.
The team is preparing a vertical slice — a playable segment representative of the game's final quality — as well as an application to the CNC (France's National Centre for Cinema and the Moving Image).
A Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign is currently being prepared, and the Steam page will open for wishlisting as soon as it's ready.
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