Sean Parker
Spiral Circus has released a new trailer for their underwater exploration game Silt ahead of its newly announced June 1 release date.
In Silt, you play as a diver exploring the depths of an evolving underwater world, where you figure out puzzles by possessing creatures around you that will allow you to explore vast and darker places. The further you travel, the more bizarre the wildlife and landscapes are. Discover these strange creatures, unexplored ruins, and forgotten technology to discover long-forgotten mysteries hidden in the growing darkness of the deep.
Silt is indie game developer Spiral Circus’ first game. The Bristol-based gaming company founded in 2018 by Dom Clarke and Tom Mead is all about bringing surreal artistry into games. Personally, I love that, and if Spiral Circus can give me that type of experience, I’m in. Judging from the artistry of the sea life, that may not be that far off.
Fans of David Lynch will likely be impressed with the game’s sound design by Nick Dymond, who said in an interview with Gaming Bible’s Imogen Donovan, “there’s a lot of David Lynch on various odd animations. In terms of the foley, we’re trying to keep it a bit light and a little bit comic,” he said. “Things like the scissorfish, it’s got a little bit of scissors actually snipping and things like that.”
The Silt trailer highlights, very literally, the black and white atmosphere of the 2D adventure, though it seems like the game is mainly atmospherically exploratory, meaning you won’t have guns to fight off the monsters who don’t enjoy you swimming around. The trailer shows us how to possess electric eels to use machinery, aim our light at the bioluminescent flora and fauna, and what to avoid. The player will have to figure out the wondrous abilities of the stunning world around them and use them to their advantage before those abilities are used on them.
The game calls forth comparisons to Limbo, Pixel Junk Monsters, and ABZÛ, though perhaps the bizarro version of ABZÛ. Fans of those games may really want to check out the beautiful underwater monochrome world Spiral Circus has put together here. Silt will be available on all platforms on June 1. Wishlist it now on Steam.
