Concerns about the use of AI in the gaming industry have significantly risen this year. But amid all the discourse, there’s a new platformer coming that takes an entirely different approach.
The Eternal Life of Goldman, revealed at the THQ Nordic Showcase today, is an entirely hand-painted platformer inspired by ancient fables—and it looks absolutely gorgeous.
The mechanics of The Eternal Life of Goldman will be familiar to players established with the genre: a side-scrolling adventure with basic attacks, puzzles to solve, and boss fights. The big difference, however, is how the developer made the game.
Developer Weappy Studios built the game by hand, frame-by-frame, which sounds impressive in itself but makes even more of an impression when you look closely at the details.
The first-look trailer showed a variety of environments, and while the action takes place in the middle, there’s no wasted space. Fires burn at the front of the screen, and monsters lurk, with similar secrets hidden in the background, all drawn by hand.
There’s no denying that using computer generation would have been easier and quicker, but The Eternal Life of Goldman would have lost its lure. Described as a “labor of love,” the details are staggering.
The gameplay looks enjoyable, too, with the titular character equipped with a cane that players can upgrade for new abilities. In a first look at gameplay, we saw a hook for latching onto flying balloons or pulling monsters and a bouncy tip that transformed the cane into a pogo-stick.
The Eternal Life of Goldman provides plenty of challenges with 19 boss fights, while its story, inspired by ancient folk tales from Greek, Jewish, and Mesopotamian backgrounds, sounds intriguing.
The developer has yet to share release details for The Eternal Life of Goldman, but it’s coming to PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, and PlayStation 5.
