A Walk in the Dark comes to Xbox One and Windows 10

Numbers first: 100 levels in the main story, a cat and gravity that won’t stay in place. A Walk in the Dark was announced for Xbox One and Windows 10 on May 19, 2017, through the Xbox Play Anywhere program, which lets you play on both platforms with a single purchase.

The game is from Flying Turtle Software, an independent studio from Portugal, and it wasn’t exactly new: it had already come out on PC. The Xbox version was the studio’s first on consoles. The team started the project part-time, while working at a multimedia software company, and began dedicating themselves to it full-time after losing their jobs during the economic crisis in Portugal.

In the story, the player controls Bast, a kitten trying to rescue his friend and owner, Arielle, taken by an ancient and evil creature during a walk through the forest. The dark silhouette visuals, with the foreground all in black, follow the line of Limbo, which the developers themselves cite as an aesthetic inspiration, with a foot in film noir.

In practice, though, the pace is different. The gameplay is precision platforming, inspired by Super Mario, Super Meat Boy, N+ and VVVVVV. Bast runs along the ceiling, jumps from wall to wall to dodge bats and inverts gravity to get through traps. Translated from the jargon: fast, precise controls and little room for error. The developers said they will vary the mechanics throughout the campaign to keep the challenge interesting. The original soundtrack is by composer Cody Cook.