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Game News Strangeland is a surreal new adventure game from the creators of Primordia

Infinitron

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Tags: Strangeland; Wadjet Eye Games; Wormwood Studios

After releasing Codex all-time favorite Primordia back in 2012, our friend MRY and his collaborators at Wormwood Studios seemed for a while to have moved on from point-and-click adventures towards more idiosyncratic projects. In particular, the Norse-inspired roguelite Fallen Gods, which we posted about frequently back in 2018. Yet during that same year, MRY also announced that he and his team had begun work on a new adventure game as well, which seems to have ended up putting Fallen Gods on the backburner. Its title is Strangeland and it's a surreal tale set in an otherworldly carnival which promises non-linearity, multiple solutions and all the good stuff you'd expect from the creators of Primordia. The game is finally out today after over three years of development, so without further ado:



You awake in a nightmarish carnival and watch a golden-haired woman hurl herself down a bottomless well for your sake. You seek clues and help from jeering ravens, an eyeless scribe, a living furnace, a mismade mermaid, and many more who dwell within the park. All the while, a shadow shrieks from atop a towering roller-coaster, and you know that until you destroy this Dark Thing, the woman will keep jumping, falling, and dying, over and over again....

Strangeland is a classic point-and-click adventure that integrates a compelling narrative with engaging puzzles. For almost a decade, we've been working on a worthy successor to the fan-acclaimed Primordia, and we are proud, at long last, to share our second game.

Strangeland is a place like no other. Even in the real world, carnivals occupy a twilight territory between the fantastic and the mundane, the alien and the familiar. In their funhouse mirrors, their freaks, and their frauds, we see hideous and haunting reflections of ourselves, and we witness the wonder and horror of humanity in just a few frayed tents, peeling circus wagons, dingy booths, and run-down rides. Strangeland, of course, is most definitely not the real world. Indeed, figuring out where—and who—you are is one of the game's many mysteries.

As you explore Strangeland, you will need to gather otherworldly tools and win strange allies to overcome a daunting array of obstacles. Forge a blade from iron stolen from the jaws of a ravenous hound and hone it with wrath and grief; charm the eye out of a ten-legged teratoma; and ride a giant cicada to the edge of oblivion.... Amidst such madness, death itself has no grip on you, and you will wield that slippery immortality to gain an edge over your foes.

Navigating this domain of monsters and metaphors will require understanding its denizens and its enigmas. Unlike many adventure games that offer a linear experience and single-solution puzzles, Strangeland lets you pick your own way, your own approach, and your own meaning—one player might win a carnival game with sharpshooting, another by electrical engineering; one player might unravel a strange prophet's wordplay while another gathers visual clues scattered throughout the environment. Ultimately, Strangeland's story will be your story. You are not the audience; you are the player.​


Strangeland is available on Steam and GOG for a mere $15, with a 10% launch discount until next week. Buy it and play it, don't let idiotic game reviewers win.
 
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Alpan

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I was looking forward to see if MRY would finally give a Brofist for a news post about his own fucking game releasing, but dude's a principled man on a mission with nerves of steel.
 

MRY

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I think I've accidentally rated a post or two in my time due to fat fingers on my phone screen. But I prefer to express myself without using fists.
 

KeighnMcDeath

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Inspirations

I enjoy the creepy games (always wanted to find one about the "yellow hall/room") and I like point & clicks especially since the first Kyrandia.
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Explanations??
 
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Whisper

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I want to play Fallen gods. Also best blog posts i've read on game development. Its a pity dev stopped posting them and stop develop game.
 

MRY

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Thanks very kind! We did not stop developing the game.

It has been slowed by Strangeland and by life in general, but it has never stopped.
 
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An excellent game! Steam clocked me ~4h to finish, though I didn't get all the achievements.

The story is interesting, though I would like more exposition about what exactly happened to The Woman. Visuals are fantastic, and genuinely creepy. I felt a little bit shivery through my whole playthrough.

Realy enjoyed the puzzles - none too complicated, and made sense. The only problematic was
the phone number to dial. When I heared "wanton one" I understood 121, not 1101.
though I guess it was mostly due to English not being my native language.

The music/sound effects are very atmospheric, and the voice acting is right on the ball.

I didn't like it as much as Primordia, but that's due to setting - I prefer sci-fi over horror. However, this is an excellent game, and it makes me think of Sanitarium, which was one of the most personally impactful adventure games for me.

Great job MRY, it's another great game for Wormwood studios!
 

MRY

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Thank you so much! That puzzle does seem to be tripping many up; it was my favorite, but I should've listened to the many people who got stuck on it during testing. :D
 

Alpan

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Pathfinder: Wrath
For my part, I somehow managed to interpret the sequence as:

... - 121 - 1

Thankfully, it's a short distance away from the solution, so I managed to course-correct...
 

baud

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RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
Thank you so much! That puzzle does seem to be tripping many up; it was my favorite, but I should've listened to the many people who got stuck on it during testing. :D

I like that puzzle too and I'm happy you've kept it
I just think the sequence from murmur is too hard to parse, maybe going for a shorter phone number could have helped?
 

Quantomas

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Strangeland makes it big on GOG.

GOG_H3_H5.png
Congrats! It must feel like a big milestone. I know how it is to get something out of the door with the meticulous standards you have set yourself. Neverending work. Well done!

I will get Strangeland asap on GOG, although I am currently extremely busy. It might help that you intended it as a short game, but you know how I play, almost analytically, so it will most likely be a 20 - 30 hours game for me. :)

But I plan to write a proper review then. Looking forward to see first hand what a gem you and your small team have created this time.
 

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