The game is called Sheep Lad and its indie dev, Robin Poe, calls it a spiritual successor to Zelda 2, and this pixel art adventure is racing to the top of the must-play list.
The game takes inspiration from Nintendo's Zelda 2 but with a focus on then kind of Soulslike combat that has made pixel art games like Blasphemous 2 so popular. The dev promises not to disappear down a cul de sac with button-basing and combos to remember, and instead the focus will be on well-timed parries and counters.
While many new 2D, pixel art Metroidvania focus on the dungeon aspect of the genre, Sheep Lad will be bigger, calling it an "intercontinental platformer / RPG" on Steam. The game features a role-playing 'overworld' with "caves, "caves, forests, mountains, towns and dungeons with secrets, oddities and danger everywhere you go".
(Image credit: Robin Poe)
(Image credit: Robin Poe)
The developer wrote on Steam: "I'm very passionate about making a world feel like a living breathing space, where every NPC, home, and village feels like a small part of a larger living, breathing world. There are secrets hidden behind every corner, people with routines and relationships, places with cultural beliefs and histories."
The Steam account has a number of screenshots and gifs from the upcoming game, including a large pixel art rendition of the main character, an actual dog-headed person. It's all a bit weird, but that Zelda 2 inspiration has already caught me.
Ian Dean is Editor, Digital Arts & 3D at Creativebloq, and the former editor of many leading magazines. These titles included ImagineFX, 3D World and leading video game title Official PlayStation Magazine. In his early career he wrote for music and film magazines including Uncut and SFX. Ian launched Xbox magazine X360 and edited PlayStation World. For Creative Bloq, Ian combines his experiences to bring the latest news on AI, digital art and video game art and tech, and more to Creative Bloq, and in his spare time he doodles in Procreate, ArtRage, and Rebelle while finding time to play Xbox and PS5. He's also a keen Cricut user and laser cutter fan, and is currently crafting on Glowforge and xTools M1.
