Gorgeous bug-based adventure game Morphopolis enters alpha today
A painterly puzzler in the vein of Botanicula.
Two-person studio Micro Macro Games has released the PC and Android alpha build of its beautiful, hand-illustrated adventure game about insects, Morphopolis.
Early alpha access costs $19.99 at the developer's site, and it will soon be available for Mac and Linux as well. Those who buy it will automatically receive the final game for all four platforms when it comes out this in Q4. Or players can wait until the game's launch and purchase access to every platform for $9.99.
"Morphopolis is a game about metamorphosis," said co-creator Dan Walters in an e-mail correspondence with me. "The narrative of a game follows the journey of a minuscule insect that must rescue it's companion from a huge god-like creature. The character undergoes metamorphosis or takes control of larger insects in each chapter thus growing in size and developing new skills to interact with the world. As the character grows in scale the scenery also zooms out to show more of the world and reveal an almost architectural complexity."
Walters cited Machinarium as an inspiration, which is a bit weird as Amanita Design's follow-up, Botanicula, bears a much stronger resemblance to this bug-based puzzler. Like Amanita's games, you'll be able to interact with the immediate scenery in Morphopolis, but also click/tap around to discover hidden objects, puzzles, and various interactions in each scene.
Like Botanicula, the Drawn series, or Tiny Bang Story, Morphopolis will be a mix between a hidden object game and a traditional adventure. "The gameplay consists of a roughly equal share of hidden object searching, solving mini-puzzles and discovering new puzzles," said Walters. "These overlap throughout each chapter, and while there is some set sequence in order to allow a narrative, the player is left to complete each chapter in an order that comes naturally. Mini-puzzles - which take place in pop-up scenes - are a mixture of logical and visual puzzles that must be solved to progress."
In honour of Morphopolis' alpha going on sale, Micro Macro Games has erected a Steam Greenlight page.
