With titles like A Hat in Time, Crash 4, Ratchet & Clank, Pumpkin Jack, and the upcoming Kao the Kangaroo releasing at a rapid pace, it’s safe to say that the 3D platformer is making a big comeback. Tinykin – an adorable 3D puzzle-platformer – not only stands beside any one of those heavy-hitters, it is also setting itself apart in the most creative of ways.
Romain Claude, co-founder of Splashteam and Creative Director of Tinykin, describes his latest title as “an action game with puzzle elements, and everything is set up in a platforming shell. It’s like an unusual mix between Pikmin and a 3D platformer. Imagine a game like Ratchet and Clank, but instead of having weapons, you have Tinykin.
Tinykin’s titular creatures are a big part of its teeny world. These adorable little guys are immediately drawn to Milo – the game’s main protagonist. After being shrunken down to the size of an ant, Milo forms a unique bond with Tinykin, and uses their abilities to help find a way home.
“All Tinykin have a link with Milo. You don’t know why, but you’ll find out later in the game. Each thing you do with the Tinykin is a win-win situation. Everything the Tinykin do, they actually love to do. It’s not as challenging on the platforming side as a Super Mario Bros. or games like a Super Meat Boy; it is more about exploration, finding Tinykin, and using the Tinykin to progress and solve puzzles.
One of the biggest accomplishments of Tinykin is its imaginative miniature world. Household items like tea lights, matchbooks, playing cards, and skateboards, are repurposed as lamps, bunkbeds, roofing, and bridges for its tiny inhabitants. This did not come easy for the team; as it turns out, building a big world inside of a small space isn’t as simple as it seems.
“When we started to work on a new room of the house, it was quite the challenge. We really wanted to have this game set up in a house, and the house needs to feel real. The funny thing is that we are making insects living like humans. If they were just insects, they would have just been living in a hole. Everything would have been dirty, broken, and full of dirt.“
While Tinykin is undeniably inspired by 3D platformers of yesteryear, it’s also been influenced by a very specific – and very recent – video game. Claude says that “one of our biggest references [from] today’s games is Psychonauts 2; a mix between having a big universe and lore with good gameplay mechanics.”
As fun as it is to collect the various Tinykin types and use them to lift heavy objects, create ladders by stacking on top of one another, or as literal bombs (apparently exploding is something they love to do) and explore its sprawling, miniature world is, the real showstopper is Tinykin’s irresistible, cartoon-like aesthetic, and its perfect blend of both 2D and 3D visuals.
“Cartoons inspired a lot [of the] art direction; our art director worked on Invader Zim. When you look at [it] from afar, it looks like a child’s cartoon with no depth, but it’s way more deep than what you could imagine. There are not a lot of games doing 2D characters with 3D background. Initially, it was more due to technical constraints because the artists we were working with were 2D artists. As we were working on the game, it became part of the art direction – to use 3D background and 2D characters.”
Tinykin is a small game with a big heart, and it won’t be long before you can explore its wee world. It launches later this year on PC and consoles.
Tinykin on Steam: https://bit.ly/36iqAR4
Tinykin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SplashteamDevs
Splashteam Homepage: https://en.splashteam-games.com
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