Nebelmer demo glides onto Steam

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Fantasy 3D "mini-open world" adventure coming to PC in early 2025 

While many adventure games involve solving particular mysteries or achieving certain goals, perhaps the greatest joy of an "adventure" is simply the exploration of the unknown, with all the excitement and joy and fear and wonder that entails. Players will have the opportunity to experience all that early next year by land and air alike in Brume Studio's upcoming Nebelmer.

Unlike many games, there's no singular defined goal in this game, just a series of quests that evolve as you go. Players assume the role of Ixe, a wordless boy who lives in a remote mountain village surrounded by an impenetrable fog. According to legend, the mist was a gift from a colossal dragon-like guardian named Kamaska to protect the villagers from the "unknown creatures" that lurked beyond. Ixe loves to hear his grandmother read grand tales from her notebook, but now it's time for new stories to be written, so she entrusts the notebook to Ixe to fill up more pages of his own and "uncover the truths behind the villagers' myths." And so begins a journey into the hidden world beyond the mountain, equipped only with a staff that will help the young protagonist traverse a variety of different environments. 

Originally begun as a master's graduation project by a group of Belgian students, Nebelmer is a "dynamic exploration game set in a mini-open world, based on movement and the understanding of environmental features." There will be items to collect, tasks to complete and mysteries to unravel, automatically filling in Grandma's notebook as you go along, but the real reward here is not in the destination but in the journey, offering a "peaceful, pressure-free atmosphere" to enjoy at your leisure. Once through the mist there are three distinct biomes you can roam freely with a gamepad or keyboard/mouse: a "pink forest of giant mushrooms, an icy canyon lit by anemones and a waterfall inhabited by flying jellyfish." It's a relatively "small" world but an imposing one to travel on foot alone. Fortunately your staff allows you to surf on land and water, grind like a skateboard on rails, and even glide through the air, catching gusts of wind to soar longer and higher. As you progress, you will unlock new context-specific means of navigation as well, such as "jumping in a water geyser, bouncing off a jellyfish or flying in a bubble." Making strategic used of these movement skills is needed to overcome the ever-changing variety of "platforming challenges" that stand in your way. 

Nebelmer can't be fully explored until sometime in the first quarter of 2025, but you can take your first bold steps (and flights) right now thanks to the playable demo available on Steam. 

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