There's something special about hiking through a forest as the sun goes down. During the day, it's the sort of thing that can re-connect you with nature, far away from the noise of cities and civilization. But as night approaches, there's an added layer of mystery -- every sight and sound has an air of intrigue and potential menace. Hello Games, developers of No Man's Sky, is aiming to capture that mood with its latest title, The Last Campfire, which arrived on Apple Arcade, consoles and PCs yesterday.
"A lot of Hello Games' titles have this kind of thing that sparks back from childhood," said developer Steve Burgess in an interview with Engadget. "Joe Danger is about wanting to be a stuntman, No Man's Sky is about what it would feel like to set foot on a planet you've never seen." And for The Last Campfire, it was all about recreating the feeling of his childhood walks.
The game places you in the role of Ember, a small creature who wakes up in a mysterious forest, and has to figure out how he can get back home. Along the way, he finds the remains of other beings like him, and by solving puzzles he helps their spirits find peace. It's a game that's ultimately about the search for meaning and hope when things seem particularly rough -- so it couldn't be more fitting for the state of the world today.