Noita will treat us to its beautiful fluids next month
A Noit to remember
I want it I want it I want it. Let me revel in chain reactions of dripping lava and exploding acid. Let me bask in quelling them through spell-summoned rain. Or at least die trying.
I kept forgetting Noita exists, because despite Noita being a fabulously-promising platforming roguelike that had Alec (RPS in peace) making favourable comparisons to Spelunky, it had also spent many years in development with no whisper of a release date. No more! The devs have announced it's entering early access on September 24th, and there's a trailer to celebrate. Quickly, come with me and fantasise about acid.
It's all a bit gorgeous, innit?
I'd already been making Spelunky comparisons using my eyes, so I was glad to see Alec substantiating them with his fingers. The delight in his preview of a five month-old build is infectious. I can so clearly picture him nuzzling up against the emergent chaos pursued by a game where "every pixel is simulated", each life an unfolding disaster of ignited oil, tumbling ice sheets and electrified water. All of it looking absolutely stunning, and laced with the further promise of concocting your own elemental spells.
It's being made by Nolla Games, a trifecta formed of Petri Purho, Olli Harjola and Arvi Teikari. They're responsible (respectively) for Crayon Physics Deluxe, The Swapper, and Baba Is You, which is a pleasingly varied mix of expertise I can now see in Noita.
Alice Bee recently had a chat with them, where the team told her they'd spent the first two years of development hopping between genres before finally figuring out how to wring fun out of their aptly named engine, "Falling Everything". The technical side is interesting, but what really gets me excited is when Alice says stuff like this:
"I found Noita really difficult, but not annoying in the way that I find most roguelikes, because even in failure I would do something like accidentally set fire to a pool of oil, or run through a pool of acid and accidentally explode it whilst trying to escape. I didn’t get past the first area, but ran into every new attempt ready to clap and laugh like a seal again."
Seal me up. Nolla Games say they plan to spend a year in early access, focusing on adding more variety to a game they've declared "polished to a nearly-finished state up to a certain point in the game's progression".
You can wishlist it on Steam, though note that it's also coming to the Humble store and Itch.