Falling stars replace the map in Gabe Askew's Abelina

When we think about the afterlife, we're haunted by images of the River Styx or the arrow-throwing monkeys of Mictlan. But what if it's something else entirely, a place where you can die many times over in search of the things you've lost.

Animator Gabe Askew has been posting more development updates from his solo effort Abelina, including a well-shared clip of its character pausing on a ledge while the camera tilts up: no minimap, no compass rose, no objective marker. In Abelina, you find your way by reading falling stars. It’s the same de-HUD argument Boring Car Stories made last month with a paper notebook. Interfaces are quietly becoming acts of attention.

Askew is the talented animator whose unofficial video for one of all-time favorites Grizzly Bear’s “Two Weeks” was a Vimeo Staff Pick in 2009’s most passed-around piece of fan animation—interlocking dioramas built over four months of after-hours work. Askew has spent the years since as a cinematics veteran (Valorant, League of Legends, Netflix’s Love, Death + Robots), and Abelina is his first game solo project: an Unreal Engine 5 adventure platformer in which you die, wake up in a frontier afterlife, and head out with companions trailing behind. The Steam page promises a hand-crafted world, no combat, and a score by Ryan Holladay, composer on Weapons and the 2026 Resident Evil. Indieformer publishes in Q1 2027.

Disclosure: I gave Gabe a hand with business operations last year. No money was exchanged.