RPS Feature Social creatures
Might and Delight (them off Shelter and Shelter 2 parent-sim fame) have a small social project tied into the Shelter-verse called Meadow [official site]. I’d mostly stayed away because I didn’t ever warm to the Shelter series, but I took a dip into the “forum in games clothing” and was pleasantly surprised by a lot of little joyful moments. Read the rest of this entry »
Shelter and its sequel starred animal mothers on serious missions, trying to escort their children to safety through hostile lands. They’re lovely-looking games but, y’know, a bit grim. Meadow [official site], the latest game from creators Might and Delight, takes those adorable animals into a safer, sillier space. It’s a multiplayer sandbox where everyone just larks about. It sounds a lot like Tale of Tales’s magical deer playground The Endless Forest, though with new animals taking the fun to the skies and waters. If you fancy seeing what animal parents get up to after their kids leave home (or get eaten by eagles), it’s only £2. Read the rest of this entry »
Pip once speculated that Might & Delight’s upcoming Meadow [official site] might be a game in which you play as a mommy meadow nurturing a litter of baby meadows, keeping in line with Shelter’s tradition. While that is a game I would certainly be interested in, it seems Might & Delight has a different vision for their latest project.
Unlike Shelter 1 and 2, Meadow seems to be less about struggling to keep your cubs from succumbing to a nasty demise, and more about making friends. Lynx walk side-by-side with fox and deer in blissful harmony. Sure, that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense in the real world, but Meadow is all about exploring and the social experience. Might & Delight heralds the game as a sort of nature playground.
RPS Feature Distress Call
Pan-Pan [official site] is a short, extremely sweet “open-plain” puzzle game of exploration and widget retrieval, from one-man development team Spelkraft. It’s also a game that charges £2 for its own manual as paid-for DLC. Here’s wot I think:
Would you like to see an incredibly pretty game that’s out today and which I’m annoyed I can’t play right now to tell you if it’s as good as it is pretty? Yes? Well have a peek at Pan-Pan [official site] – a lovely-looking puzzler/exploration game:
Pan-Pan [official site] could very well be the perfect light and breezy end to the lazy summer months–it’s got a colorful open world and oodles of atmosphere, all set off with an ambient soundtrack reminiscent of something you’d hear at the planetarium. Pan-Pan is a collaboration between publisher Might and Delight and Swedish developer Spelkraft (Emil Berner to some). Might and Delight has created a number of games in delightful environments, and Pan-Pan looks to be following in that tradition.
Might And Delight [official site] – the studio behind animal parenting sims Shelter and Shelter 2 have been busy teasing a thing called “Meadow”.
Given their email on the subject consisted solely of a Shelter-esque image and the words “Come one. Come all!” there’s not much to go on but I figured enough people were fond of the series that this was newsworthy.
I have also come up with some theories as to what the teaser is actually teasing:
I enjoy cuteness tinged with tragedy, but there is a certain line past which I feel the need to be mean and cynical to balance things up a bit. I mean, if you’re going to be tugging at my heart strings and squeezing my eyes for some juice, at least be decent about it.
Paws [official site], a standalone spinoff from Shelter 2, came out today, together with an “interactive book” called “The Lonesome Fog.” You will never believe how many lynx cubs die a tragic, painful death in this new story trailer!
The Shelter games by Might and Delight have always looked gorgeous, but the prospect of me mothering idiot babies – even baby animals – sounds more like the pitch for a dire family movie than a plan for a pleasant afternoon. But I do adore that art! So I’m certainly interested in the Shelter 2 spin-off they announced today, an “adventure platformer” named Paws [Steam page]. Rather than care for a wee lynx, you play as one trying to find its way home. Have a look in this trailer:
Might & Delight’s games always have an interesting art style but I’m more impressed that, from Pid through The Blue Flamingo to Shelter, each project has looked unique. Their next game, Child of Cooper [official site], is a real looker too, as the first ‘gameplay’ trailer shows. Here, come admire this with me:
My nurturing instincts stretch only as far as buying a doughnut for Cara when I fetch my morning coffee, so Shelter 2 [official site] is perhaps not the game for me (Pip also struggled). However, Might & Delight’s game about a lynx caring for her cubs is awfully pretty, and its new DLC may lure me in to gawp at rock formations and aurora borealis.
Named Mountains, because it adds mountains, the DLC launched this week. It’s on Steam and GOG and whatnot for £4.
The last lesson developers Might & Delight had to teach about babies is that they’re weak and foolish so leave them to die and live your life free from fretting. Or maybe you came away from Shelter with a different message, I don’t know. Maybe their next lesson is that I’m a monster.
Announced today, Child of Cooper [official site] is told from the perspective of a child. They describe it as “a visual narrative that challenges aspects of normative video game storytelling”, which means it’ll be a bit weird. Let’s have a look.
RPS Feature The lynx effect
Shelter 2 [official site] is Might & Delight’s sequel to 2013’s badger cub parenting game, Shelter. You play a mother lynx raising a brood of four cubs to adulthood, keeping them safe and fed while roaming the wilderness in search of glowing doodads. Here’s wot I think.
“Pip, I don’t want to stereotype, but a trailer titled ‘Cuteness in Shelter 2’ seems right up your street,” said Alice, stereotyping furiously.
Thing is, this is a stereo-typo because I am not there for anything cute or parental. I’m interested in Shelter 2 [official site] because I want to defeat my cubs and to see how the savage indifference of nature manifests. Further reading of this news story will contain spoilers for Shelter…
RPS Feature "etsy does The Rocketeer"
Surprise! Badger-lovers Might & Delight, they of the lovely/heartbreaking Shelter, just put out a new game. And, er, it’s a shmup. But it’s OK: The Blue Flamingo is a shmup with a lounge music soundtrack and hand-crafted models. 32 feet worth of handcrafted model, specifically, which was then photographed and imported into the game. Even the explosion effects come from filming fireworks.
Quick impressions plus some footage below, jazz-chums.
Read the rest of this entry »
Shelter 2, the sequel to the badger cuddling loveliness from last year, has now been officially delayed until the first quarter of 2015. The developers, Might And Delight, report that their family of lynxes are proving trickier to craft than they’d imagined.
From a certain perspective, Shelter‘s badger kits were a resource one could strategically burn to skip a difficult situation. A small supply of hearts, continues, bullets, or smartbombs one shouldn’t waste but can afford to lose a few of. I’m glad Cara is in the USA right now or she’d ruddy well throttle me, and I suspect John might call me a monster too. Those badgers were their babies. They cared for them and feared for them and mourned them. Now Shelter 2 has new tricks up its sleeve to foster even more familial fondness, developers Might and Delight have revealed.
I thought Shelter was a frustrating experience about shepherding an idiot brood of badgers through bad pathfinding and poorly signposted objectives. It’s wholly possible that you’re a far better person than I, and you saw in it the same touching story of parenthood as Cara and John. If so, prepare to get broody: developers Might And Delight have announced Shelter 2.
Even I have to admit it looks very pretty. Extremely teasery trailer below.
RPS Feature Mushroom Mushroom
A badger simulation. PC games! Shelter, in which you are tasked with raising young badger cubs in the cruel confines of nature, is out now. While clearly I can’t better Lucy’s world exclusive review from last week, I can only hope to add my own thoughts. Here’s wot I think:
While felis catus is the official spirit animal of RPS, and the endless bear its deity, there is always a soft spot* for the badger. There has been a recent groundswell (pun!) of support that can’t be ignored. That’s all because of Shelter, Might & Delight’s mightily delightful game that somehow transposes all those icky human feelings of family and love, as well as general concerns about feeding and care, into a game about badger survival. It’s out now, and there’s a launch trailer below.
Read the rest of this entry »
