Letters Of Intent: Metamorphabet

The work of some developers is as immediately recognisable as a particular painter's oeuvre*. Take Metamorphabet, a game in which the alphabet comes to life one letter at a time. The player strokes, pokes and tickles each grapheme, causing appendages to sprout and activities to commence. The trailer shows an 'A' undergoing changes related to 'antlers', 'arch' and 'amble'. The graphical style and friendly digital toy nature of the trailer immediately reminded me of Windosill and with good reason. The game is the product of the same studio, Vectorpark, and it's as distinctive as one of Lowry's matchstick municipalities.

Vectorpark's games occupy the same mindspace as Amanita's tiny adventures and the Grow series. They're packed with delightful animations and inventive passages. Metamorphabet looks like a charming interactive gallery and the alphabet theme opens up all manner of playful opportunities.

Here's betting the X has its crossbones exposed by some manner of ray and that the Z spends at least some of its time on-screen patterned with stripes. That is the extent of my predictions.

Metamorphabet will be out later this year.

*observation - I wish 'oeuvre' was etymologically linked to 'oeuf' and that artists referred to their work as a collection of eggs.