Willy Morgan developers spinning up Whirlight: No Time To Trip

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Announcements by Jack Allin
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Comedic point-and-click time-travel adventure coming to PC and consoles beginning in 2025

For their debut adventure, imaginarylab took players on an offbeat journey to find a boy's missing father against the backdrop of fabled pirate lore in 2020's Willy Morgan and the Curse of Bone Town. For an encore, the indie Italian developer looks to broaden our horizons by sending us to the edge of space and time in the upcoming comic adventure, Whirlight: No Time To Trip.

In the 1960s, Verice Bay is home to an eccentric inventor named Hector, whose weirdness and brilliance is matched only by his continual misfortune that causes his creations to fail. But this time will be different. Just when it seems his ideas have run out, inspiration strikes in a dream, prompting Hector to scour the town for the parts he needs to build the device, a "light-squeezer, a device capable of extracting liquid light from sunlight." But where Hector goes, bad luck follows, and when "a twist of fate forces him to use the liquid light on himself," the inventor finds himself suddenly hurtling thirty years forward in time. There Hector meets and befriends a strong-willed (and occasionally strong-armed) artist named Margaret. While investigating the possibilites of space-time travel, they are "propelled into a near-future, faced with an imminent global catastrophe," and it will take both of their "brilliant minds" to avert disaster and save the planet.

While the story is much different than its predecessor's and seeks to capture "the essence of 80s and 90s movies," Whirlight's stunning artwork, point-and-click gameplay and "continuous strand of nonsensical humor and ironic wit" share much in common with Willy Morgan as it "artfully blends classic genre features with contemporary technical advancements." The setting this time is inspired by the Italian cities Venice, Burano, and Verona, and the game's characters and backgrounds are being "originally created in immersive 3D environments and then pre-rendered to give a distinct and engaging look." Players will control both Hector and Margaret at times, switching between them as each contributes "their own unique perspectives and abilities." Along with many unusual characters to meet, items to collect and puzzles to solve, there will also be some short mini-games promising a "delightful mix of gameplay styles" to keep the experience fresh.

We're still a way off from the release of Whirlight: No Time to Trip, which is expected to launch on Steam for Windows PC sometime in 2025, with console versions for PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch platforms to follow.