The winged protagonist carefully places the orange orb, which instantly produces a rippling puddle beneath it. Trotting over to a second sphere – turquoise this time – our insectoid hero gently lifts it onto its back and carries it over to the first. What happens next is the most mesmerising three seconds of videogame you’ll see in 2023. Those wings flutter excitedly in anticipation, the puddle suddenly evaporating as the bug leaps and circles the central orb, like a satellite drawn into its orbit. The camera, positioned above, zooms in for a closer look as the orb opens up and the bug spirals into it, descending at great velocity until it touches down with a thump. You’ve entered one world, with another borne on your shoulders.
This exhilarating transition serves the central hook of Cocoon, from Jeppe Carlsen, lead gameplay designer for Playdead’s multiaward-winning Limbo and Inside (a fact shrewdly highlighted by publisher Annapurna Interactive in the game’s debut trailer). The idea originated once Carlsen’s work on Inside was over – before the game was shipped, but after it was content-complete. At the time, he was working on a small game called Thoth, but the concept for Cocoon was nonetheless firmly in his thoughts. “It was this idea of basically: what if levels were also objects that I could pick up?”
This story is from the August 2023 edition of Edge UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the August 2023 edition of Edge UK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Bulwark: Falconeer Chronicles
Anyone familiar with the concept of kitbashing is already halfway to understanding what Tomas Sala’s open-world builder is all about.
Children Of The Sun
René Rother’s acrid revenge thriller – an action game with its limbs broken and forcibly rearranged into the shape of a spatial puzzler – is at once a bonafide original and an unlikely throwback. Cast your eyes right and you wouldn’t blink if we told you this was a forgotten Grasshopper Manufacture game from the early PS3 era (we won’t be at all surprised if this finds a spot on Suda51’s end-of-year list).
Post Script
What does Rise Of The Ronin say for PS5 exclusivity?
Rise Of The Ronin
Falling in battle simply switches control to the next person up, and then quick revive fixes everything
Post Script
The pawn and the pandemic
Dragon's Dogma 2
The road from Vernworth to Bakbattahl is scenic but arduous. Ignore the dawdling mobs of goblins, and duck beneath the chanting harpies that circle on the currents overhead, and even moving at a hurried clip it is impossible for a party of four to complete the journey by nightfall.
BLUE MANCHU
How enforced early retirement eventually led Jonathan Chey back to System Shock
THE MAKING 0F.... AMERICAN ARCADIA
How a contrast of perspectives added extra layers to a side-scrolling platform game
COMING IN TO LAND
The creator of Spelunky, plus a super-group of indie developers, have spent the best part of a decade making 50 games. Has the journey been worth it?
VOID SOLS
This abstract indie Soulslike has some bright ideas