Publisher: Secret Mode | Developer: Lab42 Games
Formats: PC | ETA: Early 2026 | Players: 1
Leamington Spa, UK – 21 August 2025: How would you like to be remembered? Today, developer Lab42 Games and award-winning indie publisher Secret Mode are announcing A Storied Life: Tabitha, a wholesome puzzle game combining serene packing puzzles with a choose-your-own-story twist.
In A Storied Life: Tabitha, players will arrive at the house of someone close to them who has recently died, to find a ruined memoir and a letter of interest from a publisher. Picking through the items that made up this person’s life, you’ll choose what stories you want to tell from their past, using the belongings they’ve left behind.
Each room of the house is filled with trinkets and treasures, but you can only keep so many items. Carefully position objects in a cardboard box and use bubble wrap and tape to secure fragile belongings and strengthen the box for heavier items. Decide what will stay with you, what will be sold, and what will be discarded as you check cupboards and drawers and rearrange furniture to uncover everything still waiting to be found.
Once you’ve packed up a room, it’s time to write a chapter. Each item comes with its own list of words to fill out the memoir, and each word takes the story in entirely new directions. Will you remember this person as a loving parent? A shy recluse? Or perhaps an erratic eccentric? The choice is yours – though the publisher might not appreciate it if your story makes no sense.
A Storied Life: Tabitha is an original game from the team at Lab42 Games, a frequent collaborator with publisher Secret Mode on ports for influential wholesome games like A Little to the Left and Wobbledogs Console Edition. It will launch on PC in early 2026.
About A Storied Life: Tabitha
A Storied Life: Tabitha is a cozy narrative game about memory, legacy, discovery, and joy.
An elderly loved one has died, leaving you their estate and a letter encouraging you to sell any valuables. But when a mishap spoils their soon-to-be-published memoirs, you set out to repair the damage, piecing together their hidden past using the items you inherit.
House clearing with care
Explore a picturesque country house and pack away its contents, room by room. Move furniture, lift rugs, and open cupboards to uncover hidden and forgotten objects.
What separates cherished items from rubbish? Slowly sift through fragments of someone's past and decide whether to keep, auction, or discard each object.
Relaxing packing puzzles
You can't keep everything. Move and rotate items to fit them into boxes. Limited space and weight considerations mean you must let some things go.
Strengthen boxes with tape and vacuum pack soft goods to fit more in. Don't forget to bubble wrap fragile objects or they may break when unpacking.
Restore your loved one's memoirs
Every item you save unlocks a set of associated words. Use these to mend the gaps in the damaged memoirs, completing the sentences to reveal a storied life.
You determine how the past is recorded. Uplifting, silly, shocking, funny, sombre... the memoirs have many potential branches, and every decision is yours.
A Storied Life: Tabitha will launch on PC in early 2026 and is available to wishlist on Steam now.
- ENDS -
Media Enquiries
For all media enquiries, please contact the Secret Mode PR team at Honest PR at secretmode@honest-pr.com.
For all content creator enquiries, please contact the Secret Mode influencer relations team at: creators@secretmode.games.
About Secret Mode
Secret Mode is an independent publisher and the winner of the MCV/Develop Indie Publisher of the Year 2025 award, Ukie Best UK Publisher 2024 award, and the Debug Indie Game Best Influencer Marketing 2025 award. Our titles include triple-BAFTA-winner Still Wakes the Deep, A Little to the Left, Wobbledogs, Loddlenaut, and Empyreal. We believe that games are for everyone, and that creativity has no limits. We believe quality and fun are everything.
For more information visit: wearesecretmode.com
Follow us: X | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn
Enquiries: press@secretmode.games
About Lab42 Games
Founded in 2015, Lab42 became a Sumo Digital studio in 2020. The studio has worked on a range of projects for console, PC, VR and mobile for clients including Sega, Activision, Microsoft, Klei Entertainment, Aspyr, Ripstone, Dovetail Games, and Payload Studios. Lab42 holds an exclusive licence to use the World Snooker Tour brand. Recent projects from Lab42 includes porting services for Sonic Mania, Forza Motorsport, A Little to the Left and Metal: Hellsinger VR.
For more information visit: lab42.games
Follow us: X | LinkedIn | Instagram
Enquiries: press@sumo-digital.com