"Animal Well Dev Reveals Hidden Depths and Minimalist Mastery"
TL;DR
The indie Metroidvania game Animal Well, developed by Billy Basso, stands out for its remarkably small file size of 38MB. Basso attributes this to using his own development tools and low-resolution pixel art, rather than any particularly clever techniques. This contrasts with the bloat often seen in games made with major engines like Unity or Unreal. Despite its small size, Animal Well is praised as an indie gem of 2024.
- After making a game with a file size so tiny it was dwarfed by its own PS5 background, developer of hit Metroidvania Animal Well says "I didn't do anything clever" Gamesradar
- I hated Animal Well until I beat the game The Verge
- Animal Well - Official Accolades Trailer IGN
- Animal Well's haunting style owes much to procedural animation Game Developer
- Animal Well's solo dev casually reveals that the breakout metroidvania left 'at least twice as many rooms that are in the game' on the cutting room floor PC Gamer
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