The Iconoclasts Still A Stunning Action Platformer
Might finally be finished.
The Iconoclasts [official site] is coming, The Iconoclasts is coming! After a years-long development period, one-person creator Joakim "Konjak" Sandberg has partnered with studio Bifrost Entertainment to finish the action-platformer. Their work has already borne fruit in the form of a new trailer below - the first, I think, since 2012.
In a post on the PlayStation Blog (the partnership also means that the game is coming to PS4 and Vita), Sandberg introduces the game's world and story:
You follow the young, naive, and helpful mechanic Robin and her companions as they try to escape the soldiers of the religious authority One Concern — but it’s not just a simple story of good fighting evil to save the world. It’s about people caring for people, but having no real idea how to do it right.
He continues:
Since I was very young, I’ve wanted to make a game that mixes a bit of Metroid Fusion and Monster World IV; an action-filled adventure with a strong narrative, and also a bunch of world-building and discovery. I always loved the mix of charm and emotion in Final Fantasy IX and wanted a sprinkling of that feeling in the game’s characters, as well.
That the game stars a mechanic is going to make sentences about the game's mechanics awkward to parse, but aside from being an action-platformer with enormous bosses to defeat, The Iconoclasts should challenge your brain with environment puzzles which you solve using a giant wrench. Because you're a mechanic. In a world where practicing mechanics is illegal.
Development began on the game in 2010, when indie games were an unspoiled meadow of creativity, and work has continued through the intervening years of triumphant, blossoming growth until now, the grim meathook present, in which games are neither bought nor played but simply created so they can be fed directly into the crunching failmouth of public disinterest. Or so I've read.
Here's the trailer, which does a good job of highlighting the wonderful artwork and giving some sense of the story:
If you hunger for more, there's also this trailer from way back in 2012 that shows more of the combat and platforming, both of which are more than a match for the quality of the art. I know this because, aside from playing successive IGF builds over the past few years, there's also a public alpha you can download now from Konjak's site. The game has obviously changed since, but Sandberg has long been excellent at snappy-feeling platformer movement and at action which is both spectacular and tactical. If you haven't already, you might also enjoy his previously released game Noitu Love 2.
Hunger for still more? Read Quinns' words on The Iconoclasts from back in 2011.