“Oh, what a fun game to photograph animals,” I think at first glance at Nuts. Look at the beautiful colors. Detect those quirky squirrels. I’m sure it’s quite relaxing. How wrong I was. Nuts has announced a release date for February for its squirrel guard story and there is definitely something sinister going on in this new trailer.
“Go on your research caravan, upload your GPS, spread out your map and aim for the depths of Melmoth Forest,” the creators say. “As a novice field researcher, you will place cameras during the day and watch the recordings at night and watch the movements of a scurrying squirrel.” It sounds sweet and simple enough, but oh no, please watch for the end of this trailer.
What on earth do squirrels do with dynamite? Maybe they just like the look of the stuff. Maybe it’s all simple. Or maybe it’s genetically engineered genius squirrels with the plan to drive people out of their forest.
To find out, the creators say that you will place your surveillance equipment every day based on an assignment presented by the research team of Viago University. Every night you watch the cameras and take your pictures to find out what the squirrels are up to.
Apart from its obvious beauty, it is the feeling that you are physically present on the site. Even from the trailer, I can appreciate the way your character takes photos and then place the printed copies on a board. In the woods, you have a GPS in one hand and a tripod camera in the other, on which you can adjust the angle after it is placed. The giant old televisions in your research trailer have individual buttons for manually scanning the footage.
I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on this sweet little puzzle, and luckily there is not much to wait for. Nuts will be launched on Steam on February 4th. It arrives on January 22 a little earlier after Apple Arcade and the Nintendo Switch.
While you wait, you can find the prototype of 2018 Nuts on Itch.