The developers of Little Nightmares presented their current project at the Gamescom 2024: A new horror game for PS5 and Steam that sends players into a world filled with violence and despair. In the first issue of EDGE Magazine for January 2025, the team reports on the development.
What kind of game is it? Reanimal is a horror game with survival and stealth elements. Alone or in pairs, players take on the roles of two siblings who want to find their lost friends and escape dark dangers.
So far, all information about the game has come from a teaser, an announcement trailer, and a demo at Gamescom 2024, but now the developers provide deeper insight in the latest issue of EDGE Magazine.
After the development studio Tarsier handed over their Little Nightmares series to the associated publisher Bandai Namco, they continue to present themselves in an authentic style with Reanimal:
Escape through a distorted world
What is the setting in Reanimal? Reanimal takes place in a world corrupted by darkness, which seemingly harbors a grim secret. Within the game, players travel to various locations, some of which were already visible in the trailer (including a barn, a cinema, and wild waters).
Two orphaned children are searching for their missing friends and must work together to escape the dangers of the island they want to flee from. Other relevant points include the monstrous animals, the protagonists’ past, and a secret that should constantly haunt the characters and the players themselves.
What dangers await the children? In addition to the already mentioned grim setting, another danger becomes clear in the trailer: the various humanoid beings and mutated animals that inhabit the island alongside the children.
“Each monster has its own habitat,” explains Art Director Per Bergman in an interview with EDGE, “As you explore the islands, you get trapped in their home and must repeatedly confront them.”
Together through danger
How do developers create a sense of vulnerability? The team established a fundamental principle during development: “Be scared together.” To make players feel particularly defenseless and vulnerable, the developers not only work with a creepy design but also like to use extreme size proportions.
The developers presented the EDGE team with a scene on a beach to explain this method: One of the children moves away from the other, causing the camera to slowly pull out of the shot to keep both characters in view.
As a result, they become smaller and smaller, while the extent and openness of the environment become larger, making the danger risk and the power disparity of a small person in a dangerous world increasingly prominent. An image from the trailer supports the editorial experience.
The monstrous animals and hostile humans are also clearly larger than the playable protagonists, which was a well-known concept from Little Nightmares and made the enemies appear even more dangerous.
For this reason, the children must try to sneak past them unnoticed instead of confronting them. The only alternative is to run away (or face a bad ending).
How does atmosphere align with co-op? Tarsier had already discussed a potential co-op multiplayer during the days of Little Nightmares II. With Reanimal, they wanted to revisit these experiences with both local and online co-op.
The team experimented with a split screen, but this negatively affected the connection between the characters. Technical Director Joschka Pöttgen told EDGE that it only felt right with a single camera for both siblings.
The bond between the characters is one of the central points in Reanimal. This should not only be reflected in the story but also in the gameplay. Players must seek shelter together, solve puzzles, and overcome passages that can only be conquered through cooperation.
For this reason, they implemented a small feature that fans may already know from Little Nightmares II: holding hands.
“Holding hands is very important to the team. In chases, the AI companion stays as close as possible to the other player. These two children help each other through hell.”
Joschka Pöttgen, Technical Director at Tarsier (Source: EDGE)
When will Reanimal be released? There is currently no release date for Reanimal, but rumors suggest that more information and likely the game itself will be released in the new year 2025.
Whether one wants to conquer Reanimal alone or rather in pairs is up to each player. However, those particularly interested in co-op games and who want to start right away without waiting for a release might find further inspiration in this list on MeinMMO: Top 25 co-op games of 2024 – WE have chosen
