The developers of Little Nightmares presented their current project at Gamescom 2024: A new horror game for PS5 and Steam that sends players into a world characterized by violence and despair. In the first edition of the EDGE Magazine The team will report on the development for January 2025.
What kind of game is this? Reanimal is a horror game with survival and stealth elements. Alone or as a couple, you slip into the shoes of two siblings who want to find their lost friends and escape dark dangers.
So far, all information about the game comes from a teaser, an announcement trailer and a demo at Gamescom 2024, but now the developers are giving a deeper insight in the latest issue of EDGE Magazine.
After the development studio Tarsier left their Little Nightmares series to the associated publisher Bandai Namco, they continue to present themselves in an authentic style with Reanimal:
Reanimal’s announcement trailer offers a taste of Tarsier’s latest project
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Escape through a distorted world
What is the setting in Reanimal? Reanimal is set in a world corrupted by darkness that seemingly harbors a dark secret. Within the game you go to various locations, some of which were already visible in the trailer (including a barn, a cinema and wild waters).
Two orphans search for their missing friends and must work together to escape the dangers of the island they are trying to escape from. Other relevant points are the monstrous animals, the past of the protagonists, and a secret that should always haunt the characters and the players themselves.
What dangers await the children? In addition to the already mentioned dark setting, another danger becomes clear in the trailer: the various humanoid creatures and mutated animals that inhabit the island alongside the children.
“Each monster has its own habitat,” explains art director Per Bergman in an interview with EDGE, “As you explore the islands, you become trapped in their home and have to face them repeatedly.”
The siblings sneak past danger
The children are also not safe from mutated sheep
Together through the danger
How do the developers create a feeling of defenselessness? During development, the team set a basic principle: “Be afraid together.” To make the players feel particularly defenseless and vulnerable, the developers like to work with extreme proportions in addition to a creepy design.
The developers presented the EDGE team with a scene on a beach to explain this method: one of the children moves away from the other, causing the camera to slowly move out of the frame to keep both characters in the shot.
As a result, they become smaller and smaller, the scale and openness of the environment becomes larger and larger, making the risk of danger and the power imbalance of a small person in a dangerous world ever more prominent. An image from the trailer supports the editorial team’s experience.
The trailer shows the size ratio of the small protagonists in a wide world
The monstrous animals and the hostile people are also significantly larger than the playable protagonists, which was a familiar concept from Little Nightmares and made the opponents appear all the more dangerous.
For this reason, the children must try to sneak past them unnoticed instead of being confrontational. The only alternative is escape (or a bad end.)
How do atmosphere and co-op balance? Tarsier was already discussing potential co-op multiplayer back in the days of Little Nightmares II. With Reanimal they wanted to revisit these experiences with a local and an online co-op.
The team experimented with a split screen, but the connection between the characters suffered. Technical Director Joschka Pöttgen tells EDGE that it only felt right for both siblings with a single camera.
The cohesion of the characters is one of the central points in Reanimal. This should not only be reflected in the story, but also in the gameplay. The players have to seek protection together, solve puzzles and overcome passages that can only be overcome by working together.
For this reason, they implemented a small feature that fans may already know from Little Nightmares II: holding hands.
“Holding hands is very important to the team. During chases, the AI companion is as close to the other player as possible. These two kids help each other through hell.”
Joschka Pöttgen, Technical Director at Tarsier (Source: EDGE)
When does Reanimal come out? There is no release date for Reanimal yet, but it is rumored that more information and probably the game itself will be released in the new year of 2025.
Whether you want to defeat Reanimal alone or with two people is up to each player. However, if you are particularly interested in co-op games and would like to start straight away without having to wait for a release, you could find further inspiration with this list on MeinMMO: Top 25 of the best co-op games in 2024 – WE have chosen