What Happened to Rides with Strangers?

Almost a decade ago, I remember being terrified watching YouTubers play the demo of an upcoming horror game about a hitchhiker catching rides with an eccentric and terrifying roster of characters. 

Perhaps you also watched or played the demo of Rides with Strangers back in 2016 and have been wondering what’s happened with the game all these years later?

Disclaimer: I’ve compiled all the available information that I could find, but I did not back the Kickstarter, which means I don’t have access to certain updates from the developer. This piece is not meant as an attack on anyone; it’s simply a review of the game’s development and a look at where it currently stands.

What is Rides with Strangers?

Rides with Strangers is a horror game in which you play as a hitchhiker navigating late-night roads, forced to accept rides from a series of increasingly unsettling strangers. The demo, released in 2016, featured The Father, an unsettling priest character, and the Kickstarter planned to expand the roster to ten characters, including The Dungeon Master, The Nympho, The Gentleman, and The Shidu.

The game’s tension comes from interactions with these strangers, who are intended to feel human, creepy and unpredictable rather than supernatural. A key mechanic involved deciding how long to stay in a stranger’s car: lingering too long could be fatal, while leaving early (because the NPCs were so creepy) meant having to hitch another ride, potentially with a different dangerous stranger. It was set on a rural highway, designed to reinforce this sense of unease and the need to rely upon strangers to get to your destination.

Development Progress and Delays

The Rides with Strangers Kickstarter was created on January 12, 2016. Throughout January and February, Reflect Studios provided consistent updates with details about the game and rewards for different tiers of backers. The initial release date was June 2017.

The project successfully reached its funding goal on February 11, 2016. Monthly-ish updates continued until February 2, 2017, when the first official trailer dropped. This was also when progress on Rides with Strangers appears to have started to slow down, eventually leading to multiple delays and the game being indefinitely postponed.

Here’s the timeline I’ve been able to piece together:

• June 1, 2017: A Kickstarter update stated that Rides with Strangers would now be released in Fall 2017.
  
• August 30, 2017: Another update announced that the project was postponed, though the details were only available to backers.
  
• April 10, 2018: Release of Welcome to the Game 2.
  
• November 2, 2019: A post on Kickstarter addressing the lack of updates, delays, and refunds.
  
• August 2020: Following the launch of Scrutinized, Reflect Studios cancelled two other games (The Last Stop and Welcome to the Game: The Recruit) and announced that Rides with Strangers would be the last horror game that the studio would make, due to the poor sales for Scrutinized and players seeming to prefer watching horror games than playing them. Reflect Studios also announced a new release window of Q4 2021 for Rides for Strangers.
  
• Early 2022: Backers on Kickstarter began to be able to get refunds, though Reflect Studios confirmed that the game was not cancelled, calling it their “magnum opus”, and stating the game would “be done when it’s done”.
  
• December 12, 2022: A final Kickstarter update was posted. The studio also released a video on YouTube, explaining that the game isn’t cancelled despite being 6 years after the initial Kickstarter. The developer explained that his vision for the game is very ambitious, specifically in terms of character designs and animation, which means that the budget for the game’s development would likely balloon anywhere up to a million dollars, which they cannot afford. As such, they are focusing on raising capital to develop the game (but not through Kickstarter), and pursuing other projects in the meantime.

• September 2024: A commenter asked Reflect Studios on the progress for Rides with Strangers and why other games have been prioritised over it. They replied that: 

“Budget. The game will cost me prob close to $1mil to make”, followed by a second response saying “Also – Performance, I believe a game like RWS will do poorly in sales due to more people watching it then playing it themselves.”

• July 2025: Reflect Studios replied to a comment on Twitter about Rides with Strangers, saying:

“I told everyone to pretty much forget about Rides with Strangers. If it happens, it will happen in its own time. Until then please just let it go.”

Is Rides with Strangers Cancelled?

Officially, Rides with Strangers has not been cancelled, though the game is indefinitely postponed. As of the time of writing, there is no publicly confirmed release window for the game.

The game seems to be something that the studio wants to return to and finish, calling it their “magnum opus” multiple times, yet there’s just not the budget there currently.

Kickstarter refunds began to be issued to backers in 2022, and the developer has stated that any backer can contact them through Kickstarter to request a full refund. 

What is Reflect Studios Up to Now?

While Rides with Strangers was in development, Reflect Studios has released a number of games, including the very popular Welcome to the Game series. The developer is currently working on the third instalment, which is expected to release this year. They’ve also released a spin-off WTTG title called Dead Signal, a multiplayer social deduction horror called Masks of Deception, as well as a police investigation horror game, Scrutinized.

After Dead Signal, it seemed as though Reflect Studios would pivot towards non-horror games, with several posts on Twitter about Gaming Shop Simulator and Boba Tea Cafe, however, the next project scheduled to release is very much a horror game (Welcome to the Game 3: Simon’s Debt).

Conclusion

Rides with Strangers remains a highly anticipated horror game, but one that we’re unlikely to see any time soon. We’ll add more details to this article if, and when, they come out.