Starting on Kickstarter last year, the Adventures of Pip blasted through its goal of $40,000. Since then, TicToc games has put a massive amount of effort into finishing the game for its release later this year. We got a chance to play around with a demo for a bit, and here’s what we found.


           First, the story was fairly nice and simple, from the small part we saw. An evil Skeleton Queen wants to take the power the princess has had since birth, the power to create pixels from nothing, and on the princess’s 16th birthday, the evil Skeleton Queen attacks the Pixel Kingdom. Now that Pixel Kingdom is under attack, there’s only one pixel that can stop the complete destruction of the kingdom: Pip.

           Pip’s special ability is evolving and devolving at will, with an 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit form. Each form has its pros and cons, though, such as the 8-bit form being small but it can’t attack, the 16-bit version being able to attack some and jump and run well, and the 32-bit version being huge and slow but heavy on the attacking side. This interesting system leads to a very unique way of playing the game, with some puzzles and secrets made easier or possible by using a specific transformation and the player having to make decisions on when to evolve or devolve. Hopefully this is implemented strongly enough and we were very excited to see how it was used during the time we played it.


           The graphics were very pleasing from what we saw, and fans of the 8-bit, 16-bit, and 32-bit graphic style will all be impressed by the pixel work that went into the game. Nothing sticks out too much, even if there’s a difference in eras of gaming; it all blends rather well, and we loved seeing the effort that went into this aspect. The music was also very nice, and though we don’t have as much to say on we’re looking forward to seeing how the finished product’s music turns out. The music definitely helped add to the mood of the game, which we appreciated.


           Overall, the game looked amazing from the start to the end of the demo. It seemed fairly polished, and the mechanics all worked well. Thus far, we have no real complaints, either. If you’re into 2D sidescrollers, keep Adventures of Pip on your radar in the coming months.