A handful of exciting indie games were spotlighted during the Nintendo Indie World Showcase stream earlier this week, but one game we've had our eye on here at Thinky Games finally announced its release date. The wonderfully striking puzzle platformer Schim is coming to PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and Xbox on July 18th.
In Schim you play as a frog-like shadow creature who has been separated from its human and goes on an adventure to reunite with them. The way you traverse this two-tone world is by hopping from shadow to shadow, diving into each one like a small pool before leaping to the next one.
The world around you is in constant motion - cars driving on roads, frisbees being thrown, humans walking around - so you'll often have to time your jumps by waiting for the perfect opportunity to leap to a new shadow. There seems to be a playfulness with light and shadow, like how in one level it looks like you need to navigate a street at night during a storm only using the light from streetlamps and flashes of lightning to plan your route.
According to the game's Steam page, each level has its own mini-story told through subtle environmental happenings, giving some heart to Schim's abstract world. It's a great-looking game too, with its striking two-tone colour palette. And it sounds like plenty of attention has been given to the game's audio design, proven by the satisfying 'plop!' as you land in each shadow.
Schim's novel shadow-hopping puzzle design makes it one to look out for in 2024. Let's hope that developers Ewoud van der Werf and Nils Slijkerman put a demo on the game's Steam page sometime in the future because we can't wait to try it out.
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