Demo squeaks out ahead of Missi

• Announcements by Jack Allin
• Published:

Cozy point-and-click watercolour mouse adventure coming to PC later this year

Surely a mother's worst fear is having a sick child without the proper medicine. Imagine, then, how much more concerning if said mother is just a little white mouse in a great big world with mean ol' enemies standing in her way, like in Yellow Fish Arts's upcoming point-and-click adventure, Missi.

The titular little rodent's son is ill, and to cure him Missi will need to collect the medicinal herbs required. That will be easier said than done, however, as doing so means having to "trick the Mushroom Spider and the Crow King" first. Along the way the brave mother mouse will encounter a variety of "magical creatures" and puzzles to solve. Just some of the many "fairy-tale adventures" players will face include having to "bring a dragon statue to life, brew potions with a swamp witch, uncover the secrets of the mouse's burrow, help a frog astronomer, [and] save a thirsty mandrake on Fish Island.

Despite the high stakes for the protagonist's ailing son, Missi is very much intended to be a cozy, relaxing experience. You won't want to rush though the beautiful hand-painted watercolour backgrounds with over two thousand images animated frame-by-frame, designed to "capture the warmth of a living illustration and immerse players in the atmosphere of a magical journey." There is "minimal text" in the Amanita-styled experience, leaving players to work out objectives and puzzle solutions through "adorable" pictograms instead. As you explore the lovely environments and collect inventory items via simple single-click controls, visual clues will be recorded in Missi's sketchbook, and there will be many "friendly inhabitants ... always ready to assist you." You may need it, too, as the puzzles are designed to be "quite challenging." It pays to be thorough in your search anyway, as various background animations exist solely for flavour, encouraging players to interact with every hotspot available.

A playable demo for Missi is available now on Steam, offering an early glimpse of what to expect. The full game shouldn't be much further behind, expected to launch sometime later this year for Windows PC.