Pixel Art Novel (With Puzzles!)

Evan’s Remains is a 2D puzzle platformer with a big focus on narrative storytelling. It was developed by Matias Schmied and published by Whitethorn Digital.

Dear Mr. Schmied,

I want to personally thank you for creating this wonderful game and sharing it with the world.

Also, what the hell man? 😆

Regards,

Lizardjam

Evan’s Remains blew my mind in both presentation and story, the latter in a way that will forever haunt me. ( Strange to say, but in a good way.) This game is pure polish from the sprite work, character development, and even the puzzles. I enjoyed every single aspect of this game, but the twists towards the ending hour of the game threw me for such a loop that I’m a little callus and shocked. I will not spoil anything, since this needs to be experienced for oneself, but I have NEVER had a game literally throw an UNO reverse card in my damn face. It’s such a strange and uncomfortable feeling that I have to commend Mr Schmied for the unique story twist.

Now, since that is out of the way, let’s get into the gameplay! Evan’s Remains is a solely linear experience as you run along a beach overcoming giant monoliths and the puzzles inside each. I love the way that the game acknowledges that there is no real reason to be completing these puzzles, which the main character Dysis could easily walk around. But no, she’s having fun completing them and she would rather not get her dress wet by swimming around them. The puzzles themselves are made up of two main components: Platforms that cause other platforms to change, and the changing platforms themselves. These changing platforms, once your character touches them, disappear when you jump off or fall off of them. The goal is to control this by hiding and showing the platforms strategically to create a contiguous path to the exit. This works very well, and some of the puzzles can be pretty tough. After a few tries, though, I was usually able to figure out the solution and move on.

Each of these puzzle segments is broken up by a small stroll along the beach which usually lead to flashback sequences or conversations with the other protagonist, Clover. Like I stated above, the story and characters are all well written and I loved the overall story. It kept me engaged and doubting what was going on until literally the VERY end. The mystery was equally as enjoyable as the gameplay.

Art and sound wise I was also very pleased. The sprite work and dialog models were wonderful and full of expressions, while the background scenes were downright GORGEOUS! The soundtrack is a beautiful mix of synthwave and acoustic guitar and pixel sound touches. It’s very well done, and much like the Oxenfree OST, will be one that I put on while doing art or relaxing.

I only found this game after the publisher sent out a tweet about their entire library being on sale. I feel like this game deserves a bit more than that, and I will do my best to spread the word how I can. This is a beautiful and touching game that needs to be talked about so much more. Totally recommended!