Sometimes you’re just in the mood for a good platformer. That’s how I was feeling today in the waning hours of Saturday’s convention when I spotted the newly announced indie game Croak from the developer Woodrunner Games.
Croak, which is the first title ever from Woodrunner Games, has been in development for three years, under the care and attention of a ten-member team.
Game Overview
Woodrunner Games describes Croak as the following:
“Croak is a ‘fractured fairy tale’ set in a kingdom that has befallen a curse and features a prince-turned-frog. This is a twisted, delightful, and often harrowing fable of Frogo’s quest to get back to his hexed home and unravel the mystery to ultimately lift the curse.
“This storybook saga introduces a cast of quirky, lovable characters and is brought to life in stunning hand-drawn art and animation created by some of the talented artists behind the hit game Cuphead and the Rick and Morty.”
The developers said they designed the game to serve a range of gamers, from new players to the more experienced mid-core and hardcore players. The basic platforming is simple, but there are a number of collectibles and challenges that can increase difficulty for earning bragging rights.
When asked how their level design and gameplay philosophy compared to other platformers (like Super Mario Bros. Wonder), the developers said they prefer to focus on a few gameplay mechanics and to see how far they can push the player in using them. This is in contrast to other platformers that sometimes rely on a variety of mechanics or one-time gimmicks to keep their games interesting.
Demo Reactions
This game is so fun. I never felt frustrated or soured on the gameplay experience, which is challenging, but fair. There’s no penalty for dying and the re-spawn happens almost immediately. This allowed me to experiment and take risks as I moved through the levels.
Frogo has the ability to bounce or ricochet off of walls, double jump, use his tongue as a grappling hook, and more. I enjoyed solving the platform challenges and feeling my skills growing as the game intuitively trained me to improve.
The highlight of the demo, however, was fighting the boss at the end of the level, which was a giant beaver riding a bicycle. I needed to bounce off his nose five times to defeat him, but he offered a variety of attacks, each with their own challenge to overcome. The developers said they took some inspiration from Souls games in that the bosses require players to learn the boss moves and memorize a solution for how to “solve” that attack.
There’s no official release date yet for Croak, but Woodrunner Games did say fans can expect a big announcement in early 2025. For now, the plan is to release on Steam, but the developers hope to bring the game to all major platforms.
You can add Croak to your Steam Wishlist here.
Tell us what you think! Are you interested in playing Croak? Share your reactions in the comments below or join the conversation in Boss Rush Network’s Discord, Facebook, and Twitter.
Source: Woodrunner Games
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