YouTuber Dunkey’s publisher has revealed its first game, a pixelated Metroid-like

In September, the immensely popular YouTube personality videogamedunkey revealed his new publishing label: Bigmode Games. Considering Dunkey built his YouTube career primarily on comedic gaming videos, this move came as quite a surprise. Fans eagerly waited for the reveal of his publisher’s first big game, which he finally provided yesterday in his “Dunkey’s Best of 2022” video. As it turns out, Dunkey has chosen to publish Animal Well, an atmospheric Metroidvania with 2D pixel art and a heavy focus on puzzle solving. Developer Shared Memory actually unveiled this game in February 2022, but Dunkey’s publisher label should give it quite a bit of extra attention.

In Animal Well, players control a tiny round blob thing as they roam around an expansive labyrinth basked in darkness. Within this labyrinth lies numerous animals and creatures both big and small. While many of these creatures add a sense of beauty and wonder to the world, they can often pose a serious threat to the player, especially since the game doesn’t seem to feature any combat abilities. Instead, you uncover useful items in the environment that can solve puzzles and interact with creatures in various ways.

An open-ended world of mysteries

Animal Well allows players to obtain items and upgrades in any order, which should make for plenty of variance between playthroughs. The game’s items all come with multiple uses, so players will have a lot to experiment with as they attempt to make sense of the world’s layout and puzzles. According to the Steam page, “players will be discovering hidden puzzles for years,” which is quite a bold claim.

Even outside of the novelty of Dunkey’s publisher getting involved, Animal Well looks like a rather intriguing game with a lot of potential in its mechanics and world. We do not yet have a release window for the game, so those interested will have to wait patiently for further updates.