By Craig Pearson on January 26th, 2012 at 11:05 am.
Indie platformer A Walk In The Dark has a cat rescuing a lost little girl in a dark, fantasy world; the quarter of Dexter that John owns once lost a fight with his own feet (my bit was obviously the winner there). I see now why they had to place the game in a gothic forest: as a cat owner of four years, I wouldn’t believe the skills he shows off in the trailer below.
Side-scrolling, sillouhettey lovliness seems like an effect that indie developers lean on, but the results here are perfectly pleasing as the cat leaps over spikes and flips gravity in VVVVVV fashion. He sproings rather neatly over spikey things, and gracefully hops from wall-to-wall and floor to ceiling. It reminds me of the time that Dexter ate a tapeworm that he’d just extruded. Good times.
Want to help the kitty pursue the ancient evil through the gothic forest? All we have is a vague 2012 release date. Why not rescue a real one, instead? You can pretent the shelter is a gothic forest, and the administration people are ancient demons.
26/01/2012 at 11:16 sneetch says:
My word, Dexter is a very wet cat. I loved the smoke in the trailer, absolutely beautiful effect, I’m kinda surprised that the game itself is so… “standard”.
26/01/2012 at 12:04 lurkalisk says:
Yeah, the art direction, music and general vibe of the game are all great, but the game itself looks depressingly like that standard 2D-indie-platform-thing I’m getting rather tired of.
26/01/2012 at 13:58 Porkolt says:
My thoughts exactly. I’d much rather dredge up console platformers like Sonic and Mario and play those instead. Those had excellent gameplay as well, but their charm is something all these new platformers seem to lack.
26/01/2012 at 17:36 Synesthesia says:
yeah, i love those cloud-chamber smokes. Get some artbeats cloud chambers and marvel in their slow movement. I think megaupload had a load of them… wait- whoops.
Maybe taringa will have some?
26/01/2012 at 11:17 amishmonster says:
This has nothing to do with the game, but rescue cats really are wonderful. We have two and they’re better socialized than any I’ve adopted from a humane society, and there are always cats in need of a good home.
26/01/2012 at 11:21 Roxton says:
Affurmative.
26/01/2012 at 11:29 Jams O'Donnell says:
Purrecisely.
26/01/2012 at 11:46 amishmonster says:
Pawsitively.
26/01/2012 at 12:47 Belua says:
I agree categorically.
26/01/2012 at 12:55 sneetch says:
You must be feline great knowing you’ve rescued two cats.
26/01/2012 at 13:09 HilariousCow says:
Cat piss.
26/01/2012 at 14:28 Clean3d says:
Rescued two cats? Tail me more.
26/01/2012 at 16:07 Tams80 says:
Was there a claws when you adopted them?
26/01/2012 at 16:21 Craig Stern says:
Did they give you their sincere fangs?
27/01/2012 at 00:20 DigitalSignalX says:
damn you all for collaring the best puns early.
26/01/2012 at 11:18 DevilSShadoW says:
That trailer was quite atmospheric in no small part thanks to the lovely piano accompanying it.
26/01/2012 at 11:19 JB says:
So, here’s a sentence I never thought I’d type:
The gothic, wrought-iron butterfly looks lovely.
26/01/2012 at 11:20 Roxton says:
We picked up a couple of kittens from a rescue shelter over the weekend. The admin people seemed pretty nice, though; hardly demonic at all.
On Topic: While the trailer is indeed purr-ty, I’d like to see a little more of the gameplay. We get what, 25 seconds in a two minute trailer? Looks fun, but simple. If there is more to it then I’d like to see it.
26/01/2012 at 11:21 amishmonster says:
I’m glad the smoke monster from Lost is still getting work.
26/01/2012 at 11:21 mrwout says:
This game has more pussy than Bonecraft !
On a more serious note, this looks rather lovely, and I’m once again gutted to see it is not yet released….I hate you now.
26/01/2012 at 11:22 Ucodia says:
Is it me or animations are looking really ungraceful for a cat platformer?
26/01/2012 at 11:28 Aemony says:
No, I think so as well. Due to the simplistic nature of the aesthetics, I really think they should look more towards LIMBO’s animation, which is pretty much everything you could ever dream of regarding graceful animations.
26/01/2012 at 11:35 Craig Pearson says:
They’ve only just hired an animator, so I’m thinking/hoping they’ll improve.
26/01/2012 at 12:38 Ucodia says:
That partly explains it then. Would be a waste because graphics are really neat.
26/01/2012 at 11:22 Spengbab says:
All that alt-text in such a small image
26/01/2012 at 11:39 Icarus says:
Yeah- Is that a Person of Interest reference, or did I miss it entirely?
26/01/2012 at 11:42 Craig Pearson says:
Taken: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-pHc811Ym8
26/01/2012 at 11:50 mrwout says:
The suggested “Hitler gets a call from Liam” is hilarious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=calHZ-s1L_Y&feature=related
26/01/2012 at 11:53 bear912 says:
I saw the tag first, and was confused. Then I read the alt-text and found myself rather pleased by the thought of a cat delivering such thoroughly badass dialogue. The cat should really refer to her as its “staff” rather than its “owner”, though, I feel.
26/01/2012 at 12:07 Roxton says:
Or “pet”, perhaps.
26/01/2012 at 11:32 Kollega says:
Finally, a cat who is presented in a positive role. I can hardly believe this exists, but it does – so yay!
We have two cats we picked up on the street and got into proper shape. They’re a bit annoying at times, but rather cute and fluffy.
26/01/2012 at 11:53 Furtled says:
Ohhh that looks lovely – hopefully the new animator will make the cat movement more fluid before release but otherwise – sold.
26/01/2012 at 11:54 Creaturemagic says:
It’s moments like these when I wonder why they are making a game.
I mean, that 25 seconds of gameplay shows the game is just another platformer (Maybe with a new gimmick or something) and it also shows the animation quality in-game, which, to be honest, is pretty bad animation quality.
The start on the other hand, is fantastic. So, I come back to my first sentence. Why are they making a game when they could make a very good animated movie?
26/01/2012 at 12:01 jimjames says:
Oh Creature Magic. You are a silly goose.
26/01/2012 at 12:04 MeestaNob says:
The trailer promises so much with it’s lovely intro, only to reveal an uninspiring platformer from the game-clone-o-matic set to Limbo/Braid/Winterbottom mode.
:(
26/01/2012 at 21:00 Baines says:
I just want to know when indie gaming will tire of spike-based platformers.
26/01/2012 at 12:05 suibhne says:
Why do little girls get all the kitties? :(
26/01/2012 at 12:36 Ucodia says:
remove comment
26/01/2012 at 12:12 Hmm-Hmm. says:
It’s a shame the gameplay seems so basic. Then again, we’ve not seen too much of it so far.
26/01/2012 at 12:16 stahlwerk says:
Avoid Spikes For High Score!
26/01/2012 at 12:35 skyturnedred says:
More games should let you play as a cat.
27/01/2012 at 07:01 NamelessPFG says:
I can think of one very good game where you play as a cat…
…except you don’t even know your character is a cat until the very end, unless you catch onto some subtle foreshadowing.
Does that still count?
26/01/2012 at 12:47 JackShandy says:
Looks like yer basic platformer with spikes in. Real pretty, but what motivation do I have not to skip the game and just watch the cutscenes on youtube?
26/01/2012 at 12:56 InternetBatman says:
If I was lost in some dark universe, my cat would go on an epic journey through countless perils and pitfalls to bite me. Then he would ask for food.
26/01/2012 at 13:05 Eclipse says:
trailer looks wonderful
game looks awful and boring
26/01/2012 at 13:22 Etherealsteel says:
I think this game will be hit especially among cat lovers especially if they price it in the $15 range.
26/01/2012 at 13:24 zairekaboom says:
Another one of these. The silhouette style is just a way to cut down development costs and get the game out quicker. I think Nifflas’ early (2007) shots of NightSky started the trend? Back then, it was called Night Game. Only worked well for LIMBO which had a suitable theme to support the look.
26/01/2012 at 13:25 db1331 says:
I’m going to refer to this game as FFFFFFelimbo from now on.
26/01/2012 at 15:04 caddyB says:
Buying this because there’s a cat in it.
26/01/2012 at 19:58 Shadram says:
Ditto!
26/01/2012 at 15:32 Syra says:
Limbo meets Lucidity and looks less interesting than either then?
Dog people of the world unite, put an end to cats!
26/01/2012 at 16:39 Koozer says:
Dog or no sale.
Now we know who all the cat lovers are, can we round them all up, stick them in a sack, and drop them in a river?
26/01/2012 at 17:12 Lemming says:
@1:41 that looked…kind crappy? :-/
26/01/2012 at 19:11 mseifullah says:
So the part at the end, with the bird-like monster motioning for the cat to come closer…
I can’t help but think the monster is saying: “Come at me bro.”
27/01/2012 at 07:05 NamelessPFG says:
Huh, another indie platformer (of which we already have several), only this time you just happen to be playing a black cat trying to save a human girl.
Makes me wonder if it’ll run into any friendly Pomeranians along the way…
27/01/2012 at 11:30 DestructibleEnvironments says:
Are there any great games where you play as a cat? Walking on all 4 paws is preferred. No fury fetish angle please.