Woven is currently a game on Kickstarter, being developed by Alterego Games and Digital Forest. A demo is currently available on Steam for those that wish to try it. However, the Kickstarter is set to end in less than three weeks. Is it worth throwing your money at? Let’s find out!
Woven’s story stars Stuffy, a stuffed elephant, and Glitch, a small robot capable of powering up certain machines and serving as a flashlight. Together, the duo must traverse the world while going through some puzzles and obstacles. The story is told through rhyming, describing situations and character actions, leaving no dialogue. The narrator’s voice could use some work, maybe add a bit more emotion and try to keep it livelier, though I imagine a younger audience might appreciate the storytelling here so far. The demo didn’t give much story, outside of the two protagonists meeting, a snake that wouldn’t let me past unless I looked stylish, and ending with a mechanical spider finding me. The presentation works well in showing the contrast between the woolly animals and environments, compared to the cold metallic spider that appeared to attack Stuffy and Glitch.
Through the game world, Stuffy and Glitch possess a set of skills to find items and solve problems. But it will take more than that. That’s where finding machines and finding new animal friends comes in. By activating them, you can not only change the color-scheme of certain parts of Stuffy, but also change his body parts. This in turn can give certain abilities to the stuffed animal, such as increased walking speed or the ability to jump over objects in your way. Aside from progression, you can also find little robot containers with your abilities, or simply looking around the areas really well. These grant Stuffy different palettes and colors, which can be applied by using the mouse on certain things on his body, such as nails, sections of the ear and stomach, etc.
Outside of activating machines and guiding Stuffy, Glitch also has some uses with his light. In one area where they must traverse through a forest, he is needed to light up the mushrooms in order to navigate the area. The little robot is also invaluable in telling the player and Stuffy which abilities are needed through onscreen prompts. And, in case the player lacks the skill, they can always head to a nearby machine to swap out a body part.
There wasn’t much to the pre-alpha build, but it is fairly impressive thus far and great for relaxation. I’m looking forward to the game should it hit its funding goal. You can check out their Kickstarter for more information, and see if you wish to support it yourself!
