Grinner's Diner press kit

Developer: Distant Neon Games (solo developer)
Publisher: Distant Neon Games (self-published)
Based in: Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Release: 26 October 2026, Steam Early Access (during Steam Scream Fest, 26 October to 2 November)
Platform: PC (Windows), Steam
Price: $9.99 USD, 20% off at launch ($7.99)
Players: 2 to 4 online co-op, also playable solo. Proximity voice chat.
Controls: Mouse and keyboard or controller
Language: English
Engine: Unity
Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/4540940
Website: distantneon.com/grinnersdiner
Press contact: press@distantneon.com

Run a roadside diner in the Appalachian hills with your friends. Cook every order by hand. Then the sun goes down, and not every customer is human.

Grinner's Diner is a co-op horror cooking game for 2 to 4 players, or solo. Run a roadside diner in the Appalachian hills and cook every order by hand. By day it's a rush. After dark, cryptids come to the window, and something waits for the lights to go out.

Wishlist on Steam

About the game

You and your crew run a rundown roadside diner on a back road in the Appalachian hills. There is no menu screen. The game opens inside the diner, your friends join through Steam, and the shift starts when someone flips the door sign from CLOSED to OPEN.

Everything in the kitchen is physical. Pick up patties with your own clumsy hands, slap them on the grill, drop fries, onion rings and chicken tenders in the fryer, stack the buns and bag the order. Drive-thru orders come in over the speaker and go out through the pickup window. Walk-ins order at the counter, then sit down to eat or take it to go. Food burns, food goes cold, and sooner or later somebody gets hit in the head with a pickle.

Then the sun goes down.

After dark, the Jersey Devil hovers at the pickup window and won't take a bag: you throw its food straight into its mouth. Let it down and it screams, the power dies, and someone has to walk out into the dark to reset the breaker. Something you can't quite see is waiting for exactly that. The woods behind the diner have wild ramps and things that live among the trees. The walk-in freezer is worse: every trip in is a different maze. And when the night runs out, get everyone inside and hold the doors, because the crowd that comes out of the treeline after closing isn't here to eat.

Every customer who gives up and leaves wears down the crew's shared nerve, and low nerve brings more cryptids. Players who die spectate until dawn. If the whole crew goes down, the run is over. There is no finish line, only how many nights you last.

Locals don't talk much about what happened at the diner in 1952. The sign out front still grins anyway.

Features

2 to 4 player online co-op over Steam, also playable solo, with proximity voice chat.
Physics-hands cooking: grab, grill, fry, stack, sauce, bag and throw every order by hand.
A small menu that grows on you: burgers, fries, onion rings and chicken tenders, plus three dishes only cryptids order.
Drive-thru and dine-in: a pickup window, a counter and tables to serve.
Cryptids: feed the Jersey Devil through the window, and keep away from what lives in the woods and the freezer.
Blackouts and the breaker run: when the power dies, someone has to leave the light.
Hold the diner: after closing, barricade the doors against the crowd from the treeline.
Between shifts, spend your takings on new appliances and place them wherever you like.
Early Access: playable start to finish as an endless run, with more cryptids, dishes and kitchen gear planned.

Videos

Gameplay trailer (30 s, 1080p, in-engine footage). Download MP4

Teaser trailer (60 s, 540p). A stylised mood piece, not in-engine footage. Download MP4

GIFs

A burger stacking itself up on the prep counter, layer by layer — **Stack it.** 01-burger-stack.gif

Raw patties dropping onto the flat-top grill — **On the grill.** 02-grill.gif

Food flying and tumbling across the kitchen — **Physics food.** 03-food-chaos.gif

A walk-in customer ordering at the counter in the dining room — **Walk-ins.** 04-counter-order.gif

The kitchen lights die, emergency red comes on and a lantern comes up — **Blackout.** 05-blackout.gif

The diner's front door swinging open onto the dark lot at night — **After closing.** 06-front-door-gives-way.gif

Screenshots

Every screenshot and GIF is in-engine footage from the Early Access build. Full files are 1920 x 1080.

The kitchen mid-blackout, lit only by emergency light — Blackout in the kitchen

The broken front door of the diner at night — The front door, after closing

First-person view of patties at three stages on the grill — The grill

The fryer with fries, onion rings and chicken tenders — The fryer

A corridor inside the walk-in freezer maze — Inside the walk-in freezer

The checkerboard dining room before opening — The dining room before opening

A finished burger on the prep counter — Order up

Food in mid-air across the kitchen — Somebody threw the patties

The kitchen in emergency light with a lantern raised — Take a lantern

Logo and key art

Logo, transparent PNG (1280 x 400)

Grin mark, PNG (721 x 721)

Header capsule (920 x 430)

Main capsule (1232 x 706)

Key art, no text (3840 x 1240)

About the studio

Distant Neon Games is one person making the game they wanted to play with their friends: a cooking game that turns into a horror game when the sun goes down. Grinner's Diner is the studio's first release.

Some models, textures, the logo, sound effects and music were made with AI tools (Meshy, ElevenLabs, Suno) and reviewed and edited by the developer. The teaser's announcer voice is AI text-to-speech. Nothing is generated by AI while you play. The full disclosure is on the Steam page.

Contact and keys

Press and creators press@distantneon.com Player support support@distantneon.com Everything else hello@distantneon.com

Steam keys for press and content creators are available on request. Please write from the email address listed on your channel or publication, and say how many people are in your crew so everyone gets a copy.