This is the problem with the cavalcade of games presented during Summer Games Fest: it’s easy to miss the gems among all the other gems. Schim was one I failed to spot entirely, despite our Ed placing it among the best games he played at the event in LA. It’s a bouncy puzzle adventure about a frog-like creature who lives in shadows, and there’s a new trailer below.
Here’s the new trailer shown during this evening’s PlayStation indie event:
In Schim, shadows are like ponds you can dive into, and you need to remain in shadow or perish. As Ed wrote, this turns mundane things into lifesavers. “Never before have I been so grateful to runners or dudes pacing around as they talk on their phones,” he wrote, because those runners and dudes cast shadows you can hitch a lift inside.
You also have limited means to manipulate the environment, like a mischievous spirit. The trailer above shows the player breaking a ticket machine to create a traffic jam so they can hop between the shadows of the now stationary vehicles. In another instance, they nudge a garbage truck to sound its horn, to scare away a cat, so a duck can waddle onwards with you tucked in its shadow.
Schim seems clever, playful, and it’s gorgeous to look and listen to. It’s gone right to the top of my wishlist. There’s no release date yet, but you can add it to yours on Steam or listen to a sample of its soundtrack on Bandcamp.
