The cosy game genre has become one of the most universally popular with many, as gamers seek to sit back and relax after a long day at the proverbial coalface. Whether it's farming sims or chilled out puzzlers, there's a little something for everyone who wants to wash away the stresses of the day.
It's the latter category that concerns us today, as an upcoming game on Steam looks to have all of the lovely ingredients needed to really set it apart in a saturated genre.
Paper Traces Whisper is a hidden-object & puzzle scrapbooking game where you take on the role of a young girl who is trying to piece together her journey to that point.
At the core of the game is a unique scrapbooking system that you likely won't have seen anywhere else, in which you'll collect certain items throughout the story which then become decorative stickers for you to place inside the book.
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This collectability is a big part of what you'll be working towards as you play, further gamifying progression in a genre that can often lack direction within each individual title.
In the developer's own words, Paper Traces Whisper is a game that "uses minimalist click-based interactions to immerse players in the nuanced inner world of a selectively mute protagonist. There are no lengthy dialogues – only the subtle sounds of stickers being placed, shifting light patterns in the environment, and the growing resolve reflected in the girl's receding silhouette. This is a journey exploring silence, solitude, and courage; a wordless conversation that transcends time to become an act of healing".
As you might expect from the description, there isn't much in the way of high intensity mechanical gameplay or events that require rapid response times on the part of the player. Instead, you will be allowed to explore at your own pace across individual worlds, ranging from forests to small rooms, within which you'll be able to find the pieces that you're looking for to add to your scrapbook.
In slightly sad news, the game doesn't have a release date yet, but that doesn't mean you can't log in and give it a go. On the official Steam page for Papers Traces Whisper, you should be able to find a brand new demo that has just dropped, offering a small window into exactly what you can expect when the full game does eventually release.
Topics: Indie Games, Steam, PC