Animal Well

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About

Animal Well is an exploration, puzzle, and platforming-focused "Metroidvania"-style indie game created by Billy Basso. It is notably the first game published by BIGMODE, the publishing company founded by videogamedunkey and Leahbee. Upon its release in May of 2024, it generated stellar reviews, with its art direction and puzzle design receiving high praise.

History

Billy Basso began work on Animal Well in 2017 and created a custom engine for the game.^[1] On January 9th, 2023, videogamedunkey's publishing company BIGMODE announced that Animal Well would be the company's debut title.^[2] On April 19th, 2023, Dunkey surprised viewers of a Nintendo Direct by appearing alongside Basso to advertise the game.

A year before the game's release, Basso created an ARG with puzzles for the community to solve (rundown by YouTuber FuryForged shown below).

Gameplay

Animal Well is a Metroidvania-style game, meaning it is a 2D platformer whose open world map gradually expands as players find various items to aid in traversal.^[4] It is heavily puzzle-based, as completing objectives requires players to utilize the environment and the tools at their disposal to discover solutions. Though the game's credits can roll in a relatively short amount of time, it has an extensive post-game in which players can suss out secrets, discover hidden areas, and solve more complex puzzles to achieve different endings. This aspect of the game has been compared to other notoriously deep puzzle games like Fez and Tunic.^[5]

Release and Reception

Animal Well released on May 9th, 2024. That day, Dunkey^[1] released an interview with Basso, gaining over 1.2 million views in three days (shown below).

The game received high praise from critics. As of May 13th, 2024, the game has a score of 91/100 on Metacritic.^[3] The game's art design, deep puzzle design, and technical function earned praise from many critics. For example, in a 10/10 review, Destructoid^[4] wrote, "It feels so much bigger than what I thought was promised by initial impressions, enchanting me with a world I could listen to and watch all day, and boasting some of the most satisfying gameplay of 2024."

Online Presence

The game received online attention before its release thanks to its ARG and its association with Dunkey. The game's subreddit, /r/animalwell,^[6] has over 2,400 subscribers as of May 13th, 2024. On Twitter, users posted jokes about various aspects of the game. For example, on May 11th, Twitter user @Johnny13^[7] posted an Ace Ventura clip to joke about the game's Slinky item, gaining over 70 retweets and 1,000 likes in two days (shown below, top). On May 10th, user @Terminx13^[8] posted a discovery that moving the game in a browser window causes in-game vines to sway, gaining over 2,200 retweets and 27,000 likes in three days (shown below, bottom).