Trüberbrook developer bildundtonfabrik has announced their next title – the emotionally-charged and hand-crafted sidescroller Constance.
Constance is in development for Windows PC (via Steam) though a release date wasn’t announced. A playable demo is available now, however.
Here’s a rundown on the game, plus its reveal trailer:
Constance is a Metroidvania with puzzle and jump’n’run elements. The focus is on exploration, combat, and riddles. It is currently in an early stage of development and will be released for PCs and consoles.
The game’s story is about the name-giving protagonist Constance, who one day mysteriously finds herself imprisoned by her inner demons in her subconscious.
Players take on the role of Constance and help her face these demons and fears, overcome her mental blocks and strengthen her acceptance and awareness, so that she can develop the strength and balance to leave her inner prison behind. The game’s visual style is defined by detailed hand-drawn environments and frame-by-frame animations of the characters that lend the game world a deep and lively atmosphere.
The game deals with themes of mental health, creativity, art, passion and work culture. The worlds are diverse, imaginative, and filled with dangers, puzzles, obstacles, and unique characters, all waiting to tell players their own little stories.
Features
- Become Paint – Utilize paint based mechanics to experience a constant state of flow – dive into the ground and walls, slice through the air and enemies!
- Wield Your Brush – Become stronger by unlocking new techniques with your brush that aid you in defeating threatening foes, overcoming platform challenges, solving complex puzzles and advancing your progress.
- Discover Yourself – Explore more than six unique biomes, countless of secrets, multiple paths, characters, side quests and collectibles in Constance’s non-linear interconnected inner-world!
- Strive For Balance – Using your brush techniques will corrupt your paint. If you become fully corrupted, negative effects await you, so be wary!
- Get Inspired – Use inspirations that you find on your travels to sketch in your journal. Your sketches enhance and customize Constance’s capabilities. By gathering materials, you can upgrade your sketches into even stronger artworks.
- Choice In Death – Upon death, choose how to continue your journey. Do you want to persevere through the challenge, for a price? Or do you return to a safe-point and explore other unbeaten paths?
- Rich Imagined World – The inner-world is strongly connected to Constance’s mental health journey, with each biome and its unique set of enemies and characters representing different aspects of her psyche and personal history.
- Interactive Backstory – Experience playable flashbacks about personal struggle, creativity, work-life-balance, and inner purpose. Step into Constance’s socks to uncover her past!
