GameBoy-styled fantasy adventure Everdeep Aurora has dug deep enough to uncover a release date. If you’ve missed this pretty retro platformer, it looks sort of like a monochromatic SteamWorld Dig but with friends to meet instead of enemies to smash. You are a cat, and your cat mum has gone missing. The only clue is a note from her telling you to dig down and find her. It’s a little bit Spelunky, a little bit Gato Roboto, and it’s coming out in a month’s time.
The release date is July 10th to be precise. I know because it says so in the trailer shown off during this year’s Wholesome Direct, a showcase of cosy games that runs parallel with the ongoing Summer Geoff Fest. God, there’s so much news. Send help.
Edwin delved into the demo a couple of months ago and enjoyed himself, describing it as “Hollow Knight for people who love Game Boys and are weary of combat.” Here’s what he found in the down in the non-dangerous deep.
There’s a guy with the head of a shark, a tetchy underground gardener who scolds you for stepping on the flowers, a bull-headed blacksmith, and your friend the frog, who is embarked on their own parallel downward journey. Doors and holes in the backdrop warp you across the world map down the righthand side; some provide access to dwellings and side dungeons with chests to uncover.
You can still grab the demo on Steam yourself, if you like. The rest of the Wholesome Direct showcase is being shown today, and it is overwhelmingly nice. There are a lot of non-distinct farming games. From a marketing perspective, I feel like choosing to wedge the 60-second trailer for your cosy turnip sim into a one-hour compilation of other cosy turnip sims is a bit silly – all these games with friendly colour palettes and wobbling text start to blend into one after about ten minutes. But don’t worry about that, game liker. That’s what we’re here for: to pluck the best turnips for you.