Following on from existentially crushing RPG Unsighted, the studio is now pivoting to an entirely different genre.
Studio Pixel Punk broke out onto the scene with one of 2021’s bestest games: Unsighted, a top-down action RPG that has you racing against the clock to save your fellow robo-friends and yourself. It’s emotionally effective, stuffed with new ideas, and also has fluid combat to boot. That’s also why I’ll pay attention to anything the team does next, and thankfully they’ve already started teasing.
Developer Tiani Pixel took to Twitter this week to post clips from the team’s upcoming adventure, which already looks like a great Zelda-like. Unsighted’s 2D perspective gets swapped for a third-person camera view, as our hopefully-soon-to-be protagonist explores some dungeons. Take a look at some early snippets below.
when you just give up on level design and start making torture devices for the characters instead#gamedev #indiegame #lowpoly pic.twitter.com/ksF9FudUsBNovember 24, 2023
Exploring a mysterious dungeon@StudioPixelPunk untitled next game, inspired by early 3D Zelda games and Mega Man LegendsDeveloped by me and @ironfairy_Follow us for more updates on this project!#gamedev #indiegame #lowpoly pic.twitter.com/KOaV5PzHWFNovember 22, 2023
modeling and animating this mini-dungeon door and entrancelove some round rolling doorsOST by @ironfairy_#gamedev #indiegame #lowpoly pic.twitter.com/Tpm4iAfGxgNovember 19, 2023
Implementing underwater visual effects and some gameplay interactions.My favorite part are the underwater light rays, I'm happy how it turned out! My inspiration was the effects from the original SotCWater surface shader and OST by @ironfairy_!#gamedev #indiegame #lowpoly pic.twitter.com/3nwQtx8jAsNovember 16, 2023
“Exploring a mysterious dungeon,” Pixel writes on Twitter while introducing the untitled game that’s “inspired by early 3D Zelda games and Mega Man Legends.” On the Zelda front, you have your usual block-pushing, puzzle-solving, and sword-swinging combat. But things have been given some extra flair as well.
One snippet has our protagonist scaling the dungeon with double jumps (gasp!) and parkour wall-running usually reserved for platformers or Jet Set Radio. Other videos also show the character wielding a giant greatsword and a hammer buzzing with electricity - two tools that are certainly un-Zelda, only making me more excited.
There’s not much else to gather from the teases, but if Pixel Punk’s upcoming game can squeeze out half the emotion that Unsighted did, then I’ll definitely be in tears by the end.
For now, you can check out the most exciting upcoming indies of 2024 and beyond for more under the radar gems. Also, have a look at our best Metroidvania list for games similar to Unsighted.
