First Look: Heroki

When Dutch developer Picomy Games released the first teaser for their upcoming action adventure Heroki (see below), we were left with far more questions than answers. Chief among those was probably, “Wait — is that really in-game footage?” Surely it had to be a cutscene, because not many developers are able to whip up a game engine that looks so sharp on their first try.

Believe it! The first batch of screenshots Picomy just released today bear out the fact that Heroki will look just as it does in the teaser when it’s on your Retina screen later this year. Together with Picomy’s description, these make it clear we have a serious and seriously beautiful game to look forward to here. What we know so far is that the cat-eared hero gets plenty of use out of that propeller sitting on his head, as Heroki is a platformer with a strong flying element and cuddly story. A magical artifact has been seized from Heroki’s airborne village of Levantia, and it’s now his duty to run, jump, and fly through five worlds until he gets it back. The player can distract him from his goal at any time, rushing him back home to take on short sidequests or cash in all the little trinkets he’s sure to find given the genre.

Two things have got us especially excited about Heroki. First, the hero learns new abilities as he rummages around on the world’s surface, and that promises gameplay depth. Second, there’s a fair amount of environment interaction happening, with Heroki picking up boxes and snuffing out enemies with them in screenshots just as he did in the teaser. The developer also used the phrase “epic boss fights” in their communications with us, so we can’t wait to see just what combat involves in this one. Picomy have coined the term “flow motion control” to describe the minimal-interface scheme they’ve developed for Heroki but details are scant on that front.

No release window has been announced for Heroki yet, but rest assured we’ll have more as that date approaches! Here’s Picomy’s blog again, and also keep an eye on their Facebook page and Twitter Account  for the very latest news.