Smooth-movement lovers beware: a new indie game, Pseudoregalia, was released on Steam on Friday the 28th. The game is an exploration-focused Metroidvania platformer that starts out simple with small jumps and develops cool movement synergies as you unlock new abilities.

It also has a retro feel with a chunky, low-poly look if you like that sort of thing.

The simple story revolves around Sybil, who gets dragged into a twisted and strange castle "deep within the realm of sleep."

As you explore, you gain new powers. Starting with jumping, you can perform a variety of actions, including long jumps, wall jumps, dashes, and sliding down walls. The game allows you to use your skills to solve platforming challenges in a variety of ways, and you don't have to worry too much about cleverly breaking what seems to be the intended sequence.

This makes the game highly replayable, as it is only 2-4 hours long. (I'm 4 hours because it takes me a long time and I'm not good at platforming, but I can leave it alone because I enjoy it.)

Steam reviews of Pseudoregalia are very positive, with 394 Steam reviews giving it a 97% thumbs-up rating. Most of the negative reviews mention the lack of maps, which is surprising since maps are not necessary.

Pseudoregalia is available on Steam for $6. You can find developer rittzler's other games (mostly prototypes) on itch.io.

Pseudoregalia was developer rittzler's first Steam release, and their previous work was primarily game jams on itch. Their next project is Electrokinetic, a "roguelike 3D platformer; Pseudoregalia is a proof of concept and we wait with anticipation."