Sometimes a video game can hit me especially hard. Whether it’s the visuals, the music, the concept, or a combination of everything, certain games just feel like they’re going to be special. Well congratulations, Afterplace, you now belong to this club. This is a passion project of just one person and has been in the works for years now, but for whatever reason it has flown under my radar until now. The concept of Afterplace is to create a lengthy adventure built specifically for mobile, so no virtual buttons here. The game will actually adapt to how you want to play, so you can either tap to move or use a dual-stick-style control scheme, it’s up to you. It will support physical controllers too, but the developer urges you in the game’s FAQ to “give the touch controls a sporting try before you switch.” What really attracts me to Afterplace is that it’s a massive open world game that’s stuffed with all sorts of secrets and hidden things, but designed to be found by the player with very little handholding from the game itself. For instance, there’s no overworld map, there are no waypoints, and many of the game’s dungeons are tucked away in obscure corners of the world.
That trailer, you guys. That’s what I was talking about before, that sort of special sauce that evokes a feeling inside of me that I can’t quite describe. I get a heavy Sword & Sworcery vibe from this game, which is a very good thing. There are hints both in the trailer and on the game’s website that there’s more to this tiny little world than what you see on the surface, and I’m really excited to see this particular story unfold. I’m also just plain jazzed for a game that seems to be content rich and respecting of its audience’s intelligence while also being a mobile game. Sadly those things don’t go together very often nowadays. If you’re digging the look of Afterplace too, developer Evan Kice is pegging this June for a release on both iOS and Android. Until then you can check out the aforementioned website for more information or follow Evan on Twitter for updates.
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