When I first covered Omno‘s Kickstarter at first of the month, I used to be curious whether or not the exploration puzzle-platformer would really feel nearly as good because it appears to be like. Now having tried a playable demo for myself, I’m assured that solo developer Jonas Manke is engaged on one thing particular right here. To pay money for the just-released demo, you’ll want to enroll to Studio Inkyfox’s mailing list, however I reckon it’s well worth the legwork, even when it’s an all-too-brief expertise. Who wants textures whenever you’ve lighting this good?
Omno’s demo is at present brief, candy and gently paced, though the developer has talked about that he shall be conserving it up to date. Whether which means extra content material later, I can’t say. Playing as a cute onion-headed wizardly determine, your foremost interplay in Omno at current is shaking down the world for magical energy, however non-violently. You chase round cute little rabbity creatures and so they squeak, dropping motes of glowing power. Luminous bees sprinkle you with mana as you strategy, and lumbering rock-crabs have to be gently jostled with a faucet of your workers on the bottom.
So far, all of the interactions within the game (except for cracking a couple of rocks) are non-violent – at most, you’re simply mildly irritating the native fauna, and I hope the complete game retains that up. The demo sadly segues to a (literal) sandbox simply after you meet your first full-sized dinosaur, however the large lizard appears pleasant sufficient. The solely actual puzzle within the demo is gentle, however the platforming feels stable. The preliminary spell that you just get – an aerial sprint that can be utilized for teleportation later – feels whooshy sufficient to be suitably magical and the particle results really feel excellent.
Once the demo ends, you’re left by your self, however free to discover a second atmosphere utilizing your workers as a magical surfboard. It’s instantly harking back to browsing throughout the dunes in Journey, however feels satisfying. There’s a weight to each animation that feels excellent with out getting in the way in which of management response. I admit that I performed this demo with a gamepad (this appears an excellent lying-on-the-sofa game), however the mouse controls really feel responsive sufficient, from the transient poke I gave them.
Even with out assistance from the demo, Omno sailed previous its preliminary €32,000 Kickstarter funding objective briefly order. There’s every week left, and with the launch of this demo, I can simply see it filling out the entire developer’s stretch targets over its closing week. £13/€15 will get you a duplicate of the game when it’s completed, and it’s aiming to launch subsequent September. You can discover extra on its Steam and official pages.
