A New Day, A New Game Showcase
Annapurna Interactive has been responsible for some genuinely beloved titles over the years, and today they’ve dropped a full new showcase of game announcements and updates. We start with a VERY cute skit of their showcase being introduced by several characters from some of their most successful games (The Outer Wilds, Stray, etc.) – with game-accurate text bubbles! – before shifting into a more traditional trailer backed by serene music, previewing several of the games in the Showcase.
Wheel World
Starting with a really heartfelt presentation by lead developers Mark and Kristy, we get an in-depth look at Messhof’s open biking experience game, Wheel World. I really like the look of this game, in both a broad and a literal sense. The concept is focused heavily on bringing the developers’ love of biking and bike modification to players in a way that looks wonderfully calming and joyful. It’s mentioned that while there are plenty of challenges you can undertake, you can also just explore the huge open world they’ve created on your own time. It really sells the sense of freedom they discussed, and it’s combined with some lovely, lo-fi cel-shaded visuals that I wish we saw more often. On a technical note I do hope to see this game on the PS5 Pro – at first it seems like it may not need it, but cel-shaded visuals tend to be pretty susceptible to aliasing. The Pro should be able to offer the kind of huge resolution boost and downsampling needed to make those long-distance vistas look utterly pristine.
Wanderstop
This presentation starts with a very casual vibe, a brief conversation with the lead developers talking about their history with game releases before transitioning into a proper trailer. Wanderstop seems to continue the theme of indie games with calmer vibes and no combat – but here, Wheel World’s focus on exploration is replaced by a focus on narrative and interaction with some very effective character animation. It’s a cute, funny sequence that demonstrates some of what you’ll do in the game – dialogue, tending to plants, making various concoctions – but shows all this from the perspective of a bird trying to steal your stuff. It all works well, and now I want to play it – which fits nicely with the Steam demo announced at the end.
Skin Deep
With another extensive discussion from the developers that delves into their history, Skin Deep is introduced as a long-in-development labour of love from a small team, using the Doom 3 engine of all things to create a very silly, comedic first-person shooter set in deep space. Playing as a former assassin turned “insurance commando” (one of the most concerning things I’ve heard in a while), you have to take on regenerating pirates in a massive spaceship. I love the utilisation of both the environment (breaking the windows on a spaceship is as effective as you’d imagine) and whatever tools you can get your hands on (up to and including the classically hazardous banana peel), and the very retro vibe works both stylistically and graphically. You should check out the new Steam demo, I know I will.
Cocoon Collector’s Edition and Vinyl Soundtrack
Next we have not a game announcement, but rather… well, you read the heading. The developers of 2023’s Cocoon are here to announce both a collector’s edition of the game and a soundtrack for vinyl enthusiasts. This segment is focused primarily on discussing the new music composing and remastering done for the soundtrack (including deciding what the fixed versions of the songs would sound like, as opposed to the dynamic in-game soundtracks) and spotlighting their partnership with Annapurna for the production of these new editions… right up until the end when they reveal that this partnership does not end there. Yes, they’re working on a new game, but they reveal nothing. I appreciate the air of mystery, and as someone who completely missed Cocoon the first time it released, I’m interested in giving it a shot.
Lushfall Photography Sim
A local game! This presentation starts with Lushfall’s only developer, a man from Perth named Matt, introducing his game – and the fact that he wants to keep focus off of it to allow players to experience it for themselves, in their own way. I respect that desire to preserve the mystery, so I’ll keep this brief. The graphical style is a hard-right turn from the previous games in theis presentation, focusing on extreme photorealism. The lovely scenery and focus on experiencing the environment for yourself makes me think of Wheel World’s similar exploration-based approach, and you should dig into this if you like those ideas. The game is coming in April, and there’s a strong indication that approaching the game the way you would actual photography will yield the biggest rewards.
Faraway
Another solo developer steps up. Steph Thirion demonstrates Faraway, a beautifully simple space puzzle game that embraces minimalism on a couple of levels. The life of a shooting star building constellations is presented through beautifully simple 2D visuals, and the controls are pared down to a single button – not just minimalist but likely also a fantastic accessibility feature. I could easily see a great many physically disabled loving this, and I’m into it as well.
to a T
I don’t even know what to think with this one. A bizarre, adorable little game from Kaeda Takashi, it’s about a boy, his dog and his anthropomorphic giraffe chef friend. If this is your vibe, you’ll probably also love the simple, brightly-lit art style that gets me thinking of Katamari Damacy. I also think this would be an excellent game for kids – the lyrics that play over the trailer put me in the mind of songs from various children’s shows, teaching them about life.
Morsels
A surprisingly brief presentation (just a morsel, if you will) introduced the most traditional game of the presentation so far – Morsels, an action roguelike game with the intriguing twist of cards spread around the environment to enhance your mouse character and give them magical abilities. I’m always a fan of roguelike and roguelite games, and the potential of melding that genre with deckbuilding excites me. I appreciate the detailed art as well – lead developer Toby even points out that the very concept started with him observing and replicating concrete textures. This may well be the most broadly-appealing title of the show.
Sayonara Wild Hearts for PS5
And for the final announcement, we get not a new game, but a free PlayStation 5 upgrade for Sayonara Wild Hearts, which I’ve heard of (I mean, that title stands out if nothing else), but never played. Which based on this trailer is very much my bad, as it looks profoundly addictive with some gorgeous visuals that are going to pop beautifully on PS5. This is the kind of high-resolution, high-framerate treatment that I was talking about with Wheel World, where games with rather simple underlying visuals can be presented in their absolute best possible light. An excellent end to a very pleasant showcase.
