When it comes to pop culture, it doesn’t look kindly on Appalachia. Like the American South, Appalachia, and other rural areas are often passed over or maligned by stereotypes. But both regions offer rich folklore that deserves exploration. For the South, Compulsion Games’ South of Midnight aimed to invite players into the tall tales of the region. For Appalachia, Jade Meadow’s Blue Ridge Hunting is inviting players into a co-op horror experience where the cryptids and folklore of the Appalachian mountains, forests, and valleys come to life.
Published by Six One Publishing and developed by Jade & Company (an independent game studio founded by Jade Meadows as a creative home for friends and collaborators contributing to her projects), Blue Ridge Hunting began as a solo project by Jade Meadows in January 2023, a simple idea centered on multiplayer cryptid-hunting. With the studio’s formation by artists, composers, and designers, it’s grown into a title that aims to highlight West Virginia’s community and resilience.
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Ahead of the game’s demo release on Steam, we had the opportunity to speak with Jade about Blue Ridge Hunting, the importance of reimagining how audiences perceive Appalachia, and what developing the game has taught her about herself since development began nearly three years ago.
Blue Ridge Hunting is an online co-op horror adventure where you and your friends investigate, document, and hunt cryptids in the Appalachian Mountains. In the game, players enter the long history of the Appalachian Mountains, home to cryptids, creatures, and a deep folklore woven into the fabric of American storytelling. Real sightings and legends of the region inspire the events you explore in the game.
Blue Ridge Hunting is using co-op horror to introduce players to the beauty and horror that comes from Appalachian folklore.
While John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” is one of the most recognized songs globally, the Shenandoah Valley and West Virginia he sings about aren’t often highlighted in pop culture as the idyllic green spaces he paints through his lyrics. But rewriting those assumptions and highlighting the communities of West Virginia and their diversity has been key to Jade Meadows’ Blue Ridge Hunting.
When asked why the game had to be set in West Virginia, Meadows responded by mapping out her personal connection to the state. “I grew up in Maryland,” she started. “But when I was little, we would always visit Appalachia—Shenandoah Valley, go out to West Virginia and Western Maryland. [Those are] some of my favorite memories. I just really like it out in the mountains, and out here, where it’s quiet and it’s beautiful. It was a really important place to me. I have a lot of fond memories here [and] a lot of friends who live here. It’s just a very special place for me.”
Storytelling often involves letting people into a part of yourself, and for Meadows, it was essential to bring people into this special place authentically. “I wanted to make [Blue Ridge Hunting] feel as authentic as possible. All of the locations in the game are based on real places, and I really wanted to try to take the co-op gameplay and use it to immerse players in the region and the people who live here.”
She continued, “Over the summer, during the development, I actually did a big road trip through West Virginia. I met a lot of really cool people, and they really inspired a lot of the story and the characters that I’m writing for the game.”
Listening to Jade Meadows talk, her love for Appalachia reminded me of my own love for the South and for the state that I call home. But in the current climate, it’s often clear that the love of certain areas is met with ire at best and stereotypes at worst. But that’s why games like Blue Ridge Hunting are essential, and why storytellers like Jade are so important for the future of preserving the culture and histories of rural areas.
When I asked Meadows about the stereotypes that people often associate with the region, she knew exactly what I meant. “I think [there are] a lot of stereotypes around Appalachia and the people that live there, especially in popular media.”
She continued, “You think of Deliverance and the stereotypes that are shown in that movie. And what I really want to do with Blue Ridge Hunting shows the complexities and the diversity of the people that actually live [in Appalachia], and what it’s like living in a region that has historically been underserved and been treated as a lesser region of the country. I want to show how that affects people and how that affects the way that they live here, and how it affects their lives.”
It was here, listening to Jade explain her desire to introduce people to Appalachia, that the connection between the game’s title and the Fleet Foxes song “Blue Ridge Mountains” came to mind. If you’re unfamiliar, Appalachia runs through lower Pennsylvania all the way down to Northern Georgia. The people of the South and Appalachia are connected, and I couldn’t help but think that all of the music I had heard about Appalachia is always about going back to it. Where films have shown the Blue Ridge Mountains as a place to avoid because of who may be there, music has longed to return.
“Blue Ridge Hunting shows the complexities and the diversity of the people that actually live [in Appalachia], and what it’s like living in a region that has historically been underserved and been treated as a lesser region of the country. “
As Jade Meadows continued to talk, the weight of introducing audiences to a region she loves so much became clear. “I think using this unique medium, co-op horror, is a good way to further immerse people in the region. I think [that] when you’re done [playing Blue Ridge Hunting] with friends, and you’re out immersing yourself in this beautiful area of the country, and you’re meeting all these unique, different characters with your friends, it all really enhances it a lot.”
As a genre, horror succeeds because it embraces empathy. To make you scared or anxious, you have to feel connected to and empathetic with the characters on screen. In video games, the tactile nature of it all, you’re tethered to the characters even more so as you make decisions for them.
Blue Ridge Hunting embraces the nostalgic found footage horror aesthetic of The Blair Witch Project, and when it comes to gameplay, there are few co-op horror titles that use proximity chat in the same way. When asked about her inspirations, Meadows explained, ‘The original idea for the game was phasmophobia, but cryptid hunting. It’s been almost three years now of development, and over that time, I’ve been inspired by a lot of different media that I have been searching for. I looked for a lot of Appalachian media, a lot of just psychological horror media.”
“Another big inspiration for the game is Silent Hill 2,” she continued. “I love psychological horror, and I think Blue Ridge Hunting is a very unique opportunity to do psychological horror in a co-op setting. I think there are some really cool things that you can do with that scenario, using psychological horror tricks against friends. Firewatch is also another big inspiration for me. It’s one of my favorite games. And, obviously, that’s set in the Shoshone National Forest, out in Wyoming. Blue Ridge Hunting is a combination of a bunch of different stuff.”
Still, the landscape of Appalachia is just one layer of Blue Ridge Hunting; the other is West Virginia’s cryptids. I asked Meadows about which cryptids she knew she had to include for existing cryptid fans and what she wanted to include as her personal favorite. She dove right in.
“Obviously, I had to get the most popular ones, Mothman, the Flattwoods Monster, all of those guys. But what I really wanted to do with the cryptids is use them, not just as an enemy in a game, but also as a storytelling device,” Meadows explained.
It’s here that another inspiration entered the conversation. She said, “South of Midnight is a game that recently came out, and I played and loved it. It was very funny because they did something very similar to what I’m trying to do with Blue Ridge Hunting, using these folklore creatures as storytelling elements to represent some of the troubled history of the region and some of the darker side of what life is like here in West Virginia. I try to pull from a bunch of different folklore creatures from across Appalachia, just to represent the different negative things also associated with the region.”
“In terms of personal favorite cryptids that I’ve implemented,” she added, “The Dewayo is pretty cool. He’s the one who’s going to be in the demo coming out on Steam.” The Dewayo, if you’re not familiar, is a wolf-like creature covered in dark fur with a bushy tail, that stands upright and uses its forelegs like arms like a human. Coming from Pennsylvania Dutch folklore, it’s also considered to be close to the hexenwolf, which originates in Germanic folklore.
“Historically, [the Dewayo] has been sighted in Western Maryland, so obviously, that’s the state I’m from, so he’s the favorite for me. The first place I actually visited for the game was South Mountain, which is where the demo is located. And I did a little Dewayo hunting,” she laughed a bit, explaining how fun it was to cryptid hunt.
“[Blue Ridge Hunting] feels almost, at this point, like an extension of myself, and it has helped me process a lot of things that I’ve experienced…”
One of Blue Ridge Hunting’s unique features is that it is a co-op horror game with a narrative. Because of that, I had to ask Meadows why she chose to make the game co-op rather than contribute to the long legacy of narrative single-player horror titles.
She answered, “The central focus of Blue Ridge Hunting’s story is collective trauma. I think the best way to demonstrate that is in a co-op setting, and to really make you feel it amongst your group of friends that you play with. I think being able to experience the horror together really multiplies it. Just [playing] with a group of people that you care about and going through that with them, it enhances the narrative and just makes the story more impactful.”
Throughout our interview, it was clear how personal Blue Ridge Hunting was for Meadows, and more importantly, what it could mean for others given its subject matter. So it made my next question all the more relevant. When it comes to creating things, we put ourselves into our projects. Still, they also give us something back. I asked the developer what she had learned about herself while working on Blue Ridge Hunting.
She answered, “A lot. January will be three years of development, so I started [this game] before I even transitioned. So, a lot has changed for me over the development of the game, and I think it’s really affected me. A lot of the game’s story is pulled from my life and things [that] I’ve experienced. There is a lot of me, not just the story, but in the game in general. [Blue Ridge Hunting] feels almost, at this point, like an extension of myself, and it has helped me process a lot of things that I’ve experienced and gone through. It’s been really an incredible experience working on it.”
But letting a project so close to who you are is like opening a piece of yourself up to audiences. Jade Meadows’ love for her game, and what it explores, came through loud and clear in our 30-minute interview. But even with that confidence and joy, I had to ask what it felt like putting a piece of herself out into the world.
Meadows paused for a second before answering, “It’s a mix of emotions. I’m definitely excited to get it out there and show others my experiences. But I’m also nervous. It’s scary to show others something that I consider to be an extension of myself at this point. It’s a wide range of emotions, and I think it’s still something that I’m processing even as we approach the demo release and everything.”
Jade Meadows hopes to use co-op horror to connect her players with the game’s narrative in a deeper way.
To end our conversation, I asked Meadows what one thing she hoped players would take away from Blue Ridge Hunting. Whether it was from the demo or the launched game, I was curious. “I think the thing that I want people to walk away with is from the story mode. I think mainly, [I want them to take away] just a sense of connection with the people that they play it with,” Jade Meadows said, driving home the importance of the game’s co-op gameplay.
“I’ve said that one of the main things I want to do with the game and with the story mode is to build a bond between the people that you play it through with, and have you all experience something thrilling and scary together. I want people to walk away really feeling a connection between each other, and feeling like they just went through something scary and traumatic in a good way.”
She ended, “I really want it to make them feel like they just experienced a part of life, that they just experienced something intense, and that the result of that is them growing closer together. The co-op nature of the game gives a really unique opportunity to build that connection between players further. I think experiencing [Blue Ridge Hunting] together just enhances the game in so many ways.”
Blue Ridge Hunting offers a glimpse into Appalachia, but more importantly, Jade Meadows hopes that her game will connect players with one another, with the people of the region, and with the people they play with. West Virginia has a lot to offer, and Meadows is hoping to share it.
Blue Ridge Hunting’s demo is currently available on Steam, and you can support this independent horror title on Kickstarter.
