You’ll traverse dingy, dank caves overgrown with vines, teeming with shrubs and wildlife, or circle and wheel through the skies above your hometown Vellie, as tiny birds flit in and out of the screen, leaves drift through the air, trees shudder and ripple in the wind. Everything has been crafted with love and an immense attention to detail, from the animations of protagonist owlboy Otus to the individual clouds in the background as you soar through the stratosphere. And make no mistake, the game is absolutely stunning. Rather than go with a retro throwback feel, D-Pad Studio uses a style they describe as ‘hi-bit’ - incredibly detailed, luxuriously animated pixel art that thrusts the generally retro-styled aesthetic into the 21st century.
The pixel art style is an example of where this game manages to be incredibly modern despite the lengthy dev cycle. Not that Owlboy lacks anything in the looks department, mind. Contrary to the way that many games with huge development cycles turn out, Owlboy is an absolutely stunning, contemporary experience. In fact, having played the game intensely over the last week or so, rinsing out every single secret, collecting every single optional collectible, finding every last hidden item and area on top of completing the main story, it’s hard to imagine a game that could be any more polished, any more precisely and lovingly crafted. The almost decade-long development did nothing to harm it. The risk of being outdated is mitigated with Owlboy somewhat, at least in terms of its pixel art visual style, but it’s a risk nonetheless.Īs you’ve probably heard by now thanks to fantastic pre-release reviews and launch day sales, Owlboy’s risk paid off. Tech changes, tastes change, and sometimes you can be left with something that feels like a product of its time, even though it’s only just hit stores. And there’s a serious risk with any game that’s been in development for so long. It’s a long time to be excited about something. Developers D-Pad Studio have popped up with info, updates and even a demo over the years, so there’s never been any suggestion that the game wouldn’t come out, but… almost ten years, for an indie platformer. It’s been almost ten years since we first heard about Owlboy.
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