Atmospheric UI-twiddler Nauticrawl clambers out

You're on a hostile alien planet, in a machine you don't know how to work. You've jumped into this device in a desperate bid for safety, wanted for crimes unknown, with the cops at your heels. The actions of the entities outside (yep, definitely entities outside) can only be gleaned through your scanners, once you've turned them on. You don't know how to turn them on. Or how to move. Or how to stop the pressure from crushing everything.

Nauticrawl, previously 20,000 Atmospheres, has one of the most intriguing pitches I've ever read. It's out now, but you won't catch me in that machine until someone tells me I won't cry.

"Nauticrawl unfolds through turn-based exploration", says the Steam blurb, "as you puzzle out how everything fits together". Expect much prodding, sighing, and flailing at knobs and buttons. Like in this here trailer.

I don't have much more to tell you, because solo developer Andrea Interguglielmi seems to be playing his cards close to his chest. I suppose that makes sense when finding out how the game works is the game.

When this appeared in our inboxes last week, me and Sin had the exact same reaction: initial intrigue, poisoned by the immediate suspicion that we'd find it a source of more frustration than its worth. Nate is stumbling across the planet as we speak, and hopes to tell you Wot He Thinks of it tomorrow. Presuming the pressure doesn't get to him.

If you can't wait, Nauticrawl is available now for £10.25/$13.49/€11.24 from Itch, Steam, or the Humble Store.