In October 2008 the beta version of Rainy Woods was not approved and the project was frozen. It’s rumored that the Twin Peaks similarities may have been to blame [source]. When the project was re-examined in February 2009 the game was completely recoded and given a face lift with new character models, re-recorded dialogue and the entire project was green lighted once again [Game Developer Magazine, Vol 17 Aug 2010].

The look of the game and code may have changed but the core premise of the story remained. The discovery of Anna Graham’s body brings a US FBI Special Agent to a small Northwestern town to find out if the legendary Raincoat Killer had anything to do with her death.

The core gameplay didn’t seem to change much either with players investigating in a sandbox environment with weather and time-based changes and the ability to travel around town by car. The agent often finds himself in a battle for his life using a variety of weapons with paranormal creatures from another world.

Planet Redwood’s TP vs DP Page

In the end the only differences I could see between Rainy Woods and the final product, Deadly Premonition, are entirely cosmetic in nature based on what’s shown in the TGS2007 trailer and content revealed described in Rainy Woods articles with in 2007.

If the similarities to Twin Peaks had anything to do with the stall of Rainy Woods Deadly Premonition didn’t do much to hid the plethora of nods, homages and references within the game to the hit show. If you are curious on the extent of Deadly Premonition’s homage to Twin Peaks Animagess has painstakingly compiled a list of comparisons between the two over on her Deadly Premonition site, Planet Redwood.

Below are some of the obvious differences between Rainy Woods and Deadly Premonition: