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.
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”.
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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Affurmative.
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Purrecisely.
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Pawsitively.
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I agree categorically.
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You must be feline great knowing you’ve rescued two cats.
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Cat piss.
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Rescued two cats? Tail me more.
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Was there a claws when you adopted them?
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Did they give you their sincere fangs?
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damn you all for collaring the best puns early.
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That trailer was quite atmospheric in no small part thanks to the lovely piano accompanying it.
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So, here’s a sentence I never thought I’d type:
The gothic, wrought-iron butterfly looks lovely.
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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.
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I’m glad the smoke monster from Lost is still getting work.
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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.
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Is it me or animations are looking really ungraceful for a cat platformer?
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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.
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They’ve only just hired an animator, so I’m thinking/hoping they’ll improve.
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That partly explains it then. Would be a waste because graphics are really neat.
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All that alt-text in such a small image
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Yeah- Is that a Person of Interest reference, or did I miss it entirely?
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Taken: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-pHc811Ym8
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The suggested “Hitler gets a call from Liam” is hilarious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=calHZ-s1L_Y&feature=related
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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.
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Or “pet”, perhaps.
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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.
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Ohhh that looks lovely – hopefully the new animator will make the cat movement more fluid before release but otherwise – sold.
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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?
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Oh Creature Magic. You are a silly goose.
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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.
:(
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I just want to know when indie gaming will tire of spike-based platformers.
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Why do little girls get all the kitties? :(
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It’s a shame the gameplay seems so basic. Then again, we’ve not seen too much of it so far.
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Avoid Spikes For High Score!
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More games should let you play as a cat.
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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?
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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?
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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.
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trailer looks wonderful
game looks awful and boring
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I think this game will be hit especially among cat lovers especially if they price it in the $15 range.
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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.
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I’m going to refer to this game as FFFFFFelimbo from now on.
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Buying this because there’s a cat in it.
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Ditto!
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Limbo meets Lucidity and looks less interesting than either then?
Dog people of the world unite, put an end to cats!
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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?
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@1:41 that looked…kind crappy? :-/
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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.”
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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…
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Are there any great games where you play as a cat? Walking on all 4 paws is preferred. No fury fetish angle please.
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