After almost 7 years of solo development, exceptionally cool off-beat Metroidvania gets an increasingly disturbing trailer to celebrate upcoming launch

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Animal Well is out in May

Animal Well
(Image credit: Shared Memory)

After being developed by a solo developer for nearly seven years, the Creepy Metroidvania-inspired game Animal Well will finally be released later this year on May 9.

Solo developer Billy Basso announces Animal Well's release date with a trailer that outlines the off-beat and slightly unnerving Metroidvania. The trailer, which features some very zany backgrounds and animals and an almost ethereal ambient score, can be seen in action just below.

Animal Well is a platformer mashup of a Metroidvania, complete with a yo-yo for navigating intricate puzzles. In one instance, the odd player-driven blob uses the yo-yo as a lure to get around two pretty bloodthirsty animals on a level beneath them, and it also whips the yo-yo underneath a platform to get an item hidden there.

It looks like this is going to incorporate some pretty tense platforming situations, as the blob has just seconds to race out of the grasp of some strange fox-like creature and into a tunnel. It's almost giving vibes similar to Inside and Limbo, where you could see the danger before you, and know you'd have to rapidly execute perfect precision platforming to make it away from an enemy.

As it happens, Animal Well is the first video game produced by the Dunkey-founded publisher Bigmode. The YouTuber did say he'd be focusing primarily on smaller games when he first founded the publishing body, so it's no surprise that a solo-developed Metroidvania like Animal Well is Dunkey's first publishing outing. 

Animal Well will be arriving on PC, PS5, and Nintendo Switch systems when it launches on May 9.

Read up on our upcoming indie games guide for a look at all the other noteworthy small-time games coming out this year and beyond. 

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.