So far, one of the best reviewed games of the year was launched on Steam today. In Pc Gamer's 90% Animal Well review, Shaun said that 2D metroidvania "may go down in history as one of the best of the genre," with other critics agreeing.1 Here's a smattering of praise:

Animal Well was made by solo indie developer Billy Basso who says he spent almost 7 years on the project. It's also the first game published by Bigmode, founded in 2022 by married YouTubers Jason "Videogamedunkey" Gastrow and Leah "Leahbee" Gastrow.

When he announced the venture, Dunkey highlighted his record of trashing "soulless cash grabs" while lifting indie games like Hollow Knight and Celeste, saying he wanted to work with "the most passionate and creative people.""It's only one game, but so far looks like, so good.

Animalwell Creator Basso has previously worked as a programmer for game studios, including NetherRealm, and founded his indie studio, Shared Memory, in 2020. The studio is just in addition to support from his and self-proclaimed "business y guy" Dan Adelman, a former indie developer liaison for Xbox and Nintendo, who is now independently providing business and marketing services for small developers.

Hours after its launch, Animal Well has climbed the top sellers chart on Steam and is currently ranked eighth in the world at the time of writing. Its steam rating - an average that's very important these days - has sat so far "very positive" with about 300 reviews.

Polygon reviewers say as a warning that I'm going to give you a little bit of foreknowledge in the next paragraph, so if you want to go to know nothing, now

anyone on Steam reviewers who just started playing Animal Well will not be able to play it unless you read our review or another review. As Shaun wrote in his review, "The credits rolling in Animal Well are just indicative of the end of one game and the beginning of another," in that the end is not the end. And it's a post-credit game that really elevates the whole thing.

"Animals have often morphed from a fun, fantastical indie metroid vanya to something that now keeps them awake at night," Shawn writes.

On the Steam page, Brasso said, "Players will discover hidden puzzles for years."Working en masse, players are pretty good at annihilating the riddles you put in front of them, but that's a fascinating promise - and a variant of the Konami code that was previously unknown a few years after the release of the game was discovered, for example, in a 25-year-old game.

Animal Well is available on Steam for225 (currently on sale forよ22.49) and also on PlayStation and Switch consoles.