Anew: The Distant Light is a 2D Action-Adventure Metroidvania exploration game planned to launch soon on Kickstarter.
The game revolves around the mysterious story of a child who walks up on an alien planet 20 light years from Earth, who must battle and puzzle his way through a hostile alien environment in order to “carry out a mission of critical importance.”
And we’re quite interested to learn what that mission is.
According to the game’s official Kickstarter page. Anew: The Distant Light will feature a variety of different weapons and gear that are meant to each switch-up the gameplay, and all weapons can be upgraded in order to customize your own personal playstyle.
Anew will follow a classic Metroidvania structure, where the player will unlock new parts of the world as they discover new gear and abilities and grow in strength. This will in turn create new gameplay opportunities when revisiting previous areas.
The environments will also feature a day-to-night cycle, featuring varying atmospheric conditions and weather effects. These will affect the way in which you play the game more than just visibly passing time.
The game will include a hub-world in the form of the ship that you traveled to the alien planet on. As you explore the world, you will find and collect power cells, which will allow you to unlock more rooms inside the ship and increase gameplay options. Players can also pilot giant mechs, shuttles, and tanks as the explore the world, which all open up new combat and explorations possibilities.
The gradually unlocked spaceship hub.
The Kickstarter page also claims that it’s, “inspired by classic games like Metroid, Cave Story, and Dark Souls, Anew: The Distant Light will appeal to fans of platforming, combat, exploration, and visual storytelling.”
The game is being developed by the newly formed small team of Resonator Games, consisting of veterans of the AAA gaming industry veterans including Jeff Spoonhower, Steve Copeland, and Wilbert Roget II.
The logo for Resonator Games.
Collectively, Resonator members Jeff Spoonhower and Steve Copeland have worked in various positions from animation to gameplay and sound design at a number of high-end AAA developers such as EA, BioWare, Sony Computer Entertainment, Deep Silver, and 2K. Their work includes contributions to the development of Bioshock 2, Borderlands 2, Saints Row 1-4, Spec Ops: The Line, and Uncharted: Golden Abyss.
The composer at Resonator games, Wilbert Roget II, is a veteran to the industry as well, and has created music for Monkey Island 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris.
While only a few tracks have been made available to the public so far, what has been shared so far has been quite impressive. The music can range from massively oppressive and action-oriented to calm and emotional, and from the official trailer it seems as though it will be thematically appropriate.
If you’re curious about the soundtrack, you can here one of the game’s tracks by clicking here.
The last thing to mention must of course be the art style. Resonator Games sought to give Anew a very distinct, and wholly alien aesthetic, and it seems that they have succeeded. The entire game was not just hand-drawn, but apparently “hand-painted” by Jeff Spoonhower, and it shows.
Every environment is loaded with detail, each of them distinct in their atmosphere and setting, as well as a different yet appropriate choices of color-palette, and all of them clearly falling under the same “alien” style that the team was hoping for.
A dim and desolate forest-like area.
A cozy and curious family living room.
A deadly and sun-baked cavernous location.
Based on what we’ve seen so far, Anew: The Distant Light looks like a standout member among Kickstarter games, especially with so many 2D competitors in that department. It’s a gorgeous, mysterious, and deep-looking adventure that you very well may want to keep your eye on.
Anew: The Distant Light will launch it’s campaign on Kickstarter on Tuesday, February 14th, 8 AM Eastern Standard Time.
The game currently has target release date of July 2018 on PC.
You can watch the Kickstarter trailer for Anew: The Distant Light down below:
(Access to the early Kickstarter page and press kit provided by Resonator Games.)
Published: Feb 9, 2017 05:24 pm