Update News
Yoku’s Island Express Announced
February 20, in the year of our lord 2017 -- Yoku’s Island
Express is an open world/metroidvania-style pinball adventure,
Seamlessly blending platform navigation with pinball mechanics
across a large open world. Yoku the dung beetle sets foot on the
beach of Mokumana Island, ready to take on the duties as the new
postman. But the ancient island false god is trapped in a
restless sleep and the islanders are plagued by quakes and
storms brought forth by its nightmares. Yoku's Island Express is
a unique and quirky adventure with handcrafted visuals, where
you’ll soar through the air, vacuum explosive snails, fight a
Screetch, feed starving lemurs, discover the mystery of the
Fruit Altar, wake an old god, and hopefully help tiny Yoku
rebuild the island post-office.
History
Yoku's Island Express is inspired by the joy of exploration of a
young child, having just found the entrance to a secret garden,
or unlocked the door to an attic full of wonderful and
interesting things to discover. It takes some of its direction
from Studio Ghibli films, where nature is infused with Eastern
religious spirits, but combined with a strong focus on
painterly, hand-made visuals where all the locations are unique
and hand-made. It's a world of bold, organic shapes with strong
colors basking in bright sunlight - but where there is light
there is shadow, and the journey takes us deep into the hidden
mysteries of Mokumana Island. Villa Gorilla was founded by
AAA-industry veterans Jens Andersson and Mattias snygg, working
in their own proprietary engine with the goal of exploring game
ideas that would never get made in big-studio environments.
Working in a small 4-man group with fast iteration times, the
team has struck out fresh to do something that feels personal
and unique.
Features
Genre combining open world pinballing
Unique beautifully handpainted artwork
An island filled with unique creatures, both big and small
Action-packed nonlinear gameplay that awards exploration
Developer: Villa Gorilla
Release date: Winter 2017/18
Platforms: PC and Consoles
No word on a physical copy of this game at this time. Families
are required to pay for Internet usage fees to download this
game. For more information click
here.