Indie developer Huntin’ Buddies Wildlife Management has announced that Huntin’ Buddies will launch on Steam on July 24, 2026. The four-player co-op extraction game sends players into a forbidden national park to complete hunting contracts, but what begins as a routine job quickly transforms into a surreal horror experience where the hunters may become the hunted.
Each night, players receive a contract, venture into the park, hunt the assigned animals, haul the carcasses back to their truck, and collect their reward. At first glance, the objective seems straightforward, but the deeper players travel into the wilderness, the more unsettling the environment becomes.
The wildlife is anything but normal. Deer have eyes positioned on the same side of their heads, goats speak Latin, and increasingly disturbing encounters unfold as each night passes. The longer players remain in the park, the more apparent it becomes that something else is lurking in the darkness—and it’s actively hunting them.
Adding another layer of chaos, the game’s physics-based carcass system requires players to manually drag their kills back to the extraction truck. Stretch a carcass too far while working together, however, and it can explode, turning a successful hunt into an unexpected disaster.
Designed for up to four players, Huntin’ Buddies supports drop-in cooperative multiplayer with built-in voice chat and shared contract progression, making teamwork essential. While the game can be played solo, coordinating hunts, transporting carcasses, and surviving increasingly dangerous nights is clearly built around the cooperative experience.
Players will face 15 increasingly challenging nights, each introducing new dangers and stranger events. Hunting also demands precision, as ammunition is limited and every shot counts. Careful planning, communication, and resource management become just as important as keeping an eye on whatever may be watching from the trees.
With its blend of cooperative extraction gameplay, physics-driven objectives, unsettling humor, and escalating horror, Huntin’ Buddies looks to offer a memorable multiplayer experience for players looking for something both bizarre and suspenseful when it arrives later this month.