The first game to be published under Bigmode, the indie game publishing label from YouTuber and game critic Jason Gastrow, better known as ‘Videogamedunkey’, or just ‘Dunkey’, has been revealed to be the highly anticipated Metroidvania and platform game Animal Well. Dunkey announced his foray into indie publishing last year with many awaiting the direction Bigmode would take, and it’s now starting to take shape.
Developed by Billy Basso, Animal Well is an upcoming dense and atmospheric Metroidvania that boasts allowing you to explore the environment and its secrets in a non-linear fashion. Announced early last year, the trailer certainly makes the title look like it’ll be right up the street for Hollow Knight fans and anyone who loves beautiful pixelated graphics and indie games.
“Explore a dense, interconnected labyrinth, and unravel its many secrets. Collect items to manipulate your environment in surprising and meaningful ways. Encounter creatures both beautiful and unsettling, as you attempt to survive what lurks in the dark. There is more than what you see,” reads the Animal Well Steam page.
Dunkey also says in his best of 2022 video that Animal Well will “surprise you, it’s going to spook you, it’s going to reward you for toying with its mechanics and delight you with some of the coolest animal interactions I’ve ever seen in a game.”
When Dunkey announced Bigmode last year, there was a lot of skepticism surrounding the idea of a YouTuber jumping into the world of indie publishing and saying they want to only publish good games, doing away with anything deemed bad or mediocre.
The long-term success of Bigmode will really come down to what Dunkey’s already promised with the company, but Animal Well certainly seems like a solid starting point as it’s a game that’s caught the eye of almost everyone that’s played it. I’m also here for an indie publisher that has a built-in audience and wants to spotlight some of the most promising indie games out there (whether it will work remains to be seen). You can wishlist Animal Well on Steam.
I don’t want to see anything fail, to be clear, so hopefully Dunkey’s Bigmode finds success and spotlights interesting games. After all, getting great games seen by more players can only be a good thing, like this immersive sim revealed over the weekend that blends Doom, Dead Space, and disco into a retro FPS.
If you want to play some great stuff right now without having to put down a single penny, we’ve put together a list of the best free games available on PC right now.
