Panic’s Debut Games Showcase Features Five Uniquely Strange Titles
Panic is a peculiar company that underwent a transformation from being an app developer in the late 1990s to becoming a video game publisher in 2016. Their games Firewatch and Untitled Goose Game achieved unexpected success, bringing significant triumph to both the developers and Panic. Surprisingly, in 2022, Panic introduced the Playdate, a small yellow gaming console featuring a side crank and a monochromatic screen. The Playdate quickly gained popularity and continues to receive updates for its game library.
It’s the middle of 2023, and Panic has just announced a new list of projects it’s releasing at its first-ever game show. Panic showcased five games and teased new titles from the creators of FAR: Changing Tides (Okomotive) and Untitled Goose Game (House House).
Nour: Playing with your food happens when high art meets a food fight, and honestly, it looks delicious. Nour presents a bright and colorful landscape where players can mess around with bubbling 3D versions of donuts, burgers, boba tea and other foods, creating strangely beautiful scenes or simply exploding noodles everywhere. Everything is set on the music side and there are little challenges to complete, but Nour is mainly about making digital edible art. It all comes from Missouri studio Terrifying Jellyfish, directed by designer and digital artist TJ Hughes. Nour is set to arrive on PC, PlayStation 4 and PS5 on September 12, and will feature DualSense-specific interactions – like punching soup through the controller’s microphone – on PS5.
Thank God you’re here! got a center stage treatment at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live last week, and developers Will Todd and James Carbutt offered the game some more sheep-laden context during Panic’s event today. Thank God you’re here! is a slapstick platformer similar to Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared but with a handmade Gumball or Adventure Time art style. It’s a silly romp through a northern English town, starring a traveling salesman who picks up odd jobs from the equally odd people of Barnsworth. Thank God you’re here! comes from Yorkshire studio Coal Supper and is set for release in 2024 for PC, Switch and PS5.
Arco is a complex archery game disguised as a pixelated top-down adventure, accompanied by a rich original soundtrack. Arco is the product of an international team of developers: Polish pixel artist Franek Nowotniak, Australian game developer Max Cahill, Spanish composer and sound designer José Ramón “Bibiki” García, and Mexican industry veteran Antonio “Fayer” Uribe. Arco is a tactical turn-based RPG with a unique combat system that allows players to plan their movements in real-time, dodge incoming shots and aim in split-second moments. It’s coming to PC and consoles (no details yet) in 2024.
There weren’t any special upgrades for this next Despelote game, but its segment was strong regardless. Despelote comes from Ecuadorian developers Julián Cordero and Sebastián Valbuena, who use childhood memories of playing soccer in the city of Quito to tell their country’s story of economic ruin and recovery in the early 2000s. Panic’s presentation highlighted the personal stories of Cordero and Valbuena, and related to the making of the game: its dialogue is based on conversations they have had with family members and friends who lived through Ecuador’s economic downturn in the late 1990s, and with those who saw the country’s reunification before the 2002 World Championships. Overlaid with static and color, the game’s backgrounds are photographs of real locations around Quito, with interactive objects such as the soccer ball highlighted in black and white. Despelote is coming to PC, Xbox Series X/S and PS5 in 2024.
The last confirmed game in Panic’s lineup is Time Flies. This has been buzzing for a while now, and we had a lot of fun previewing it at the 2022 Summer Game Fest, but the big news today is that Panic has signed on to publish it. Time Flies is a simple, black and white game about the short life of a fly – and actually the person playing as the fly. Players can choose how the lonely housefly lives out its existence in just a few seconds, completing a series of small challenges or just buzzing around enjoying the scenery. The game is from Michael Frei and Raphaël Munoz, produced by Frei’s studio Playables, and now published by Panic. Time Flies will land on PC, Switch and PlayStation 5 in 2024 (delayed from its original 2023 window).
The last two projects from Panic’s line-up are just teases for now. The Swiss team behind FAR: Changing Tides and FAR: Lone Sails, Okomotive is working on a new game to be published by Panic. What’s more, House House, the developers behind Untitled Goose Game, are building something new, and they’re looking at it as a completely different experience than the honk-fest that put them on the map. Untitled Goose Game was released by Panic, and the studio is ready to tackle whatever House House comes next.
