ANIMAL WELL

Relaxing, fun puzzles, forgiving obstacles that don't kill you too often, frequent respawns. Fun exploration and puzzles. Charming/fun/interesting/amusing behavior of various species of animals, and their attack tactics. Some of them are helpful and friendly and cute.

A very creative and unique game. I liked the first part which is a combination of metroidvania with survival horror. Then I was kinda put off by the whole ARG stuff, I get that some people like it, but it's just not for me.
The music reminds me of those survival horrors for PS1 which is really cool. I wish there were more games with this type of soundtrack.

8.5 out of 10

Gets the genre right - super fun, unique mechanics, and seems really well paced with lots to do. I can't stop playing it.

I did not expect less from Dunkey, and the game delivered. An amazing game which really stimulated my brain to resolve challenges in all kinds of ways. The world is cute, cool, vast and enjoyable. Big win for Big Mode, and for Billy, who soloed the development of this game!

Animal Well is not just a good game. It's a special game.

It is an experience that made me feel like I was 10 years old again playing alone in dark room a video game trying to understand what the heck is going on.

The artstyle, the dark atmosphere, the cryptic story, the sense of exploration, the variation and difficulty of the puzzles, the insane number of secrets, the rewards - all done perfectly.

This is the first time after a long, long time that I trully want to 100% - without a guide. Because I have to see how deep the well actually goes...

Amazing game but one with multiple layers, the average platformer enjoyer should simply beat the game, the average Metroidvania enjoyer should try and get most/all of the eggs, but the final layer is basically only for dedicated puzzle players, extremely deep and multi layered ones that are too vague for me to try and figure out.

Tools are used well, subverting the usual Metroidvania upgrades and with multiple uses.

Music is very sparse like a certain game everyone compares everything to, but this shifts focus to the atmosphere.

Visually it’s simple but also complex, beautifully animated and looks amazing on OLED (which you should be on in 2024).

Finally it’s pretty cool that a big video game creator used their influence to publish an actual video game. And I hope for more in the future.

A top indie puzzle game, on par with titles like Ori and Hollow Knight. While the collectibles aren't as rewarding compared to other games, the sense of satisfaction from exploration is top notch.

Animal Well is a mechanically great game, with literally nothing else going for it outside of hype and meta-gaming. It should win 2024 GOTY, but only because it's been an abysmal year for games.

It's also incredibly overhyped and a tad overrated.

This is an amazing metroidvania, with gorgeous graphics and artistic style. The world building, atmosphere, and platforming are top tier.

But it's difficult as hell, esoteric as shit, and has literally zero story or lore. I wish there was something here, an overarching story, even if it was a simple one. But the game is just a bunch of un-connected, really fun, platformer challenges.

Don't get me wrong, there is a GOAL. Get the four flames. But there is no explanation why, nor reason to do anything outside of "to do it."

The "end-game" is also incredibly lame. It's frustrating and un-fun, and you would never be able to do any of it on your own without outside knowledge. This is a literal design choice, and I think it's a bad one. There are so many things that are just literally never explained to you, and unless you cheated, you would have no way of knowing about them. It's engagement bait for "lore youtubers".

I would give the game an 8/10. It is good, but I personally have to dock points for the complete lack of narrative and some bad design choices.

This game is 33MB. Like you would not believe.

Consider this 33MB size, the map is massive and each area feels different. The mechanics are unique and often has multiple uses. The pixel arts are beautiful. The atmosphere is immersive. Puzzles are creatives and not difficult to solve. (Screw the mock disc shrine though.) The grass sways when you walk past it. The lamps swing when your head hit them. The animals look majestic and mesmerizing, even in pixel art forms. Every jump gives feedback on your controller.

All in 33MB, simply a coding marvel.

Spoiler warning

"The puzzles were not designed for me" is what I heard at the end of the game.
The main game was good, honestly besides the artstyle nothing too out of the ordinary. What left a sour taste was the optional puzzles were literally impossible (and I mean it, you cannot solve one of them on your own, physically), at which point I had to look up a guide which just removed any incentive for me to look further on my own because I've already "cheated". This may be the intended design choice, that does not make me like it more.
Alot of the puzzles that are solvable on your own were just short of being good design. Some of them just felt cheap or had extra steps attached to them that were just not necessary. In the end it doesn't even matter because you need to solve every single puzzle regardless to get the "true ending" at which point you're forced into a guide.

If you are a completionist: this game is not for you

Masterpiece . i beat the main story but there is so much left. the well goes deeper.

This game does have some good moments, but fails pretty hard. The game's puzzles are easy, and the challenge is mostly that you are being attacked while trying to solve them. This is not a bad thing necessarily, but it leads to a very short game. The controls are abysmal, at least on keyboard. Light based items turn off when you don't hold them, which is a huge pain and leads to constant switching between items. The postgame content is where the game starts to really show it's flaws. The gameplay cycle is as follows. Unlock new item, Use on every room in the game. Repeat.
This wouldn't be as bad if it wasn't a puzzle game. Solving the same parkour puzzles over and over again becomes draining.

I don't despise the game, I just really regret paying 20 dollars for this and not getting my money's worth.

The colors, atmosphere, controls, gameplay, are all very nice! I have nothing bad to say about the game ITSELF (mostly). Personally, I did not enjoy the 'story' this game had to tell. It did not leave a mark on me, and nothing I won't be thinking about in the future.

But my main issue is the PRICE. I understand this is an indie game, so the dollar per hour of gameplay is gonna be pretty low, however 25 dollars for this game is ridiculous. I would recommend buying this game for AT LEAST 50% off. I know quantifying the amount of "enjoyment" correlating to a price isn't the best way of explaining why I didn't enjoy this game, but I feel like this example is especially egregious. I spent 25 dollars for a 7 hour game that I will forget in the next week. I don't completely not recommend it, if its on sale you should buy it, but at it's current price for the level that I enjoyed it I definitely regret paying full price.

Quickly became my favourite puzzle platformer, had fun all the way through while completing the 100% as well. Mechanics are super fun if that's your thing, and secrets are well hidden but not so hard that you wouldn't ever find them without a wiki. The eerie atmosphere created some tense moments, I just loved it.

pretty good puzzle metroidvania, it lacks clarity in some places and tools, but overall has a unique sense of exploration.

Great puzzle metroidvania. Really interesting genre that I have been waiting for a long time to see. The first half of the game is really fun, exploring and looking for secrets. But the second half of the game, going through every room each time you get a new tool, just in case, is a bit more tedious. Would have played better if it followed more closely to metroidvania design where the new tool is really focused in the new area, and not just 3-5 places randomly scattered through the entire map. After the 5th tool that did this, I gave up at ~55 eggs and just started looking them up. Still had fun.

This game feels like all the important parts of a metroidvania distilled into a slightly scary--and entirely mesmerizing--puzzle box. Side effect is that it also makes you feel like a genius. The graphics did hurt my eyes at first, but maybe that's just me?

Absolutely phenomenal and everyone should play it. Only one suggestion though: perhaps introduce an item wheel, as cycling through all the items gets pretty tedious. You can bind it to the right-stick, since it remains unused for the entire game.

i ended up feeling burnt out trying to explore the deeper layers, but this is an undeniably beautiful and creative game. it's got this really unique, creepy atmosphere and it's very satisfying to find secrets. I also love any game that gives you opportunities to draw on the map and take notes. you can also play music. it's neat.

I really loved this game. It reminded me of the dungeon crawler-esque puzzle games that I used to play as a kid, and the CRT Filter just adds to that aesthetic. The puzzles are intricate, engaging, and fun. And the way that you can interact with the environment and the things around you is crazy. All in all, the word I would use for this game is "contrast". The game itself is both simple, and yet extremely complex. It's beautiful and innocent at times, and sometimes it's malevolent and it's had my hairs stand on end. Its 8 bit aesthetic contrasts with it's in game effects such as smoke and light. Even the positional movement contrasts with some of what you have to encounter in the game such as enemies and other creatures. It brought out a sense of wonder and fascination that I haven't found in a game for a long time. I would 100% recommend getting this game and trying it out for yourself. It's not too short, but also not too long, and I would say that this was money and time well spent. Thank you so much to the creators for making such a great game!

An absolutely delightful experience. Incredibly polished and atmospheric, with a world choc full of tiny details and secrets. I would recommend experimentation with the tools the game gives you, and only using a guide as a last resort. If you enjoy the atmosphere of rain world or hollow knight, absolutely give this a try!

Unbeatable atmosphere, and exploration. I would also dispute the fact that there is no "combat". Ye sure you never get a sword to swing and kill things but that doesn't mean its a walking simulator, there is plenty of things that can kill you. At its heart this is an atmospheric puzzle metroidvania and I think its worth a buy.

You may have seen multiple reviews stating this game has several layers. That’s true, and you’ll need to decide how far you want to go.

The first layer is simply completing the game without focusing much on collectibles, just to see the basic ending. It’s fun, and the visuals are a real treat for the eyes (I’d even say it’s one of the most beautiful pixel art styles ever). Playing with all the instruments feels amazing. For most people, this is where you should stop, admire the game, and move on to something else.

The second layer is finding all the eggs and witnessing the true ending. At this point, the game might start to irritate you. With each new instrument, you’ll be forced to backtrack — A LOT. You may revisit almost every area 2, 3, or even 5 times, just to see if your latest tool reveals new secrets or collectibles. If you really want to continue here, I recommend using a guide or map to minimize aimless backtracking.

The next layers are where I think you should stop unless you were absolutely thrilled by the previous two. This is where the hardest challenges lie, and they WILL take an enormous amount of your time, even with guides. The community collectively solved many of these puzzles, so the chances of figuring them out on your own are slim. If you’re still curious, I’d suggest watching some YouTube videos of the hardcore players who spent countless hours unlocking these "rewards."

TL;DR: The game is amazing, but you should suppress your inner completionist.

If you like exploring caves, interacting with strange creatures, and solving puzzles in creative ways, this game is for you!
Animal well has a constant air of mystery with a few moments of surprise and suspense. I highly recommend it for anyone who loves platforming and puzzles.

Really great game. Good exploration, a good mix of mostly really good puzzles (for an MV). 2024 has been a great year for MVs and this definitely deserves the praise. Additionally no combat, which having played a fair few that have tested my combat chops lately it was nice to take a break from that.

This game is so rich with so many nooks and crannies to find secrets in. You can fully explore a location and come back later and still find things new to discover.
There is so much detail put into environments and so much thought in every gameplay element and it all comes together to form a true spectacle of both fantastic puzzle-solving and platforming gameplay as well as rich, living areas.
Even the tiniest cracks can open up the most high-effort and thought out areas, making the incentive to explore every crevice even greater.
I've seen and played in so many different atmospheres in video games over the years, yet Animal Well still feels so fresh compared to them.

10/10. Worth the price.

Controls are great, pixel art is stunning, level design is ok.
But unfortunately finding all the eggs, the main goal, is a chore.
Hiding places feel very random at times, and you will traverse the same rooms
over and over again, using your items on the wall just to see if it has any effect. Most players probably will use a guide to find at least 15 of the eggs.
And speaking of items: You will be using three abilities like 90%, most of the others way less and some others feel completely gimmicky. Especially the slinky was annoying, because quite often you're locked off the puzzle area and are forced to solve switch puzzles.
And the majority of the puzzles didn't feel rewarding. and the ones that did, didn't make up for the wasted time.

beautiful game, wonderful mechanics and ideas and joy to explore. up there with the greats even without combat

Very fun game - most fun to play for 15-30 mins at a time, put down, and come back later.

The vibes are immaculate, I enjoyed my time with Animal Well. The pixel art is beautiful and unnerving at the same time - from capybaras resting in a hot spring, to cats that give the Cheshire Cat competition in terms of creepiness. The puzzles were fun too, but felt a bit too easy. Once I understood what my main objective was, the game pretty much fell into place for me. I'm not the sort of person to replay a metroidvania once I finish it, so maybe I'm missing out on some other stuff like the other reviews say.

There's a lot to like about this game, but I don't want to spoil. Go play it, support indie devs.

Great atmospheric metroidvania. Basically no combat and entirely exploration if you are into that.

Mostly, Animal Well really is quite good. The platforming feels great. The atmosphere and art design are really gorgeous. The puzzles at least to get through to the 'first ending' are a blast.

I pushed it almost to the end on my own. Instead of getting into reviews or walkthroughs, I intentionally held off until I felt like I'd hit the wall on enjoying and challenging myself. It feels very much like that was the right approach at least for me. There are some great guides available to give you a nudge when you feel lost, without ruining the moments of discovery. Really, those moments are one of the supremely satisfying things Animal Well does. You think you've figured out a room, and a new tool opens up other possibilities. You feel like you've done everything you can and spam some tools, finding a new interaction or perspective.

What didn't work for me so much was the amount of backtracking, particularly for rooms halfway between travel points. It gets frustrating to have to re-do empty solved rooms in pursuit of a specific goal. This is not unique to Animal Well, but at the same time they don't avoid it.

I am impressed by the next layers of puzzle available. It's incredible to see what is here, and the depth to which people had to go to solve some of them. The completionist portion of the game, which to me means everything past the first time getting to the credits, does not appeal to me enough to spend another 10+ hours working through, let alone 20-30 more. I am awed by those things, and will gladly watch some videos of others accomplishing them. But if you take that pressure off yourself and enjoy the more casual version only, absolutely this game is worth the price and your time.

A fun puzzle game, in the style of a metroidvania. Not combat orientated, so this is a really chill game.

The artistic pixel graphics and animation that defines the game is absolute eye candy and while it is shorter than other metroidvania games, it truly is a memorable experience. Highly recommend.

Top of the shelf metroidvania experience. Loved every second of it, and there is always more to find, even if you think that you are nearing the end.

One of the best platformers I've ever played, I love the music. Wish it was much longer but at least there are a ton of collectables!

there's plenty to say about this beautiful game but i want to hone in on one aspect of it that most impressed me.

as i played animal well i was pretty confused at the tools i was being given. when i first started to explore i thought to myself: wow, the movement is slow and my jump sucks. but, maybe the first item will help? i then got to the first item. it was a frisbee. like, the toy. i was flabbergasted, but i quickly realised it could be used to hit switches from range. it was cool, i guess, but i was still disappointed with it. it felt like a tool designed for a singular purpose, so to me it seemed to stifle my creative thinking.


and then i accidentally landed on the frisbee and watched in awe as my character rode it across the screen.

animal well is a rare example of a game where discovering an intended feature made me feel like i had just found a cheat code, or an unintended bug. this game is full of that. I got a second item, and realised it too had equally 'game breaking' potential. similar revelations just kept happening. i'm sure by the conclusion of the game a majority of players would discover most if not all of these, but nonetheless they still felt like such niche techniques, almost like something you'd see in a speedrun. i felt awesome for discovering cool 'movement techs' that were in fact not only intended by the developers but absolutely necessary to complete some rooms. knowing these interactions were planned did not ruin it for me. instead i felt inclined to master what I had discovered, so i could overcome new challenges. it is a thrilling feeling. you should play animal well.

⭐️ 10/10 ⭐️
Rarely do I ever give a game a perfect score but as I sit here to write a review I can't think of a single negative thing to say other than I wish it was longer which isn't really a bad thing.

It's really hard to find anything that surprises me with puzzle games anymore, many of them utilize the same tropes and the same solutions that hardly ever give anything new to the genre. Animal Well is the exception, the puzzles feel *fresh* and the items you pick up along the way are so *unique.* Every time I found something new the pang of excitement I felt was something I kept craving throughout the game, it was thrilling to continue discovering new ways to enter new areas or remember an area where something you picked up can help solve it.

I praise the developers for their *ZERO* hand holding and wish I could hug each of them for their very clear effort in execution. The game really drops you in and wishes you luck, my favorite type of adventure. But, they're clever in their helpful hints whether it be background markings or teaching you new ways to move by giving you rooms that provide you with a little more context about how an item works (purposefully being vague here to avoid spoilers).

The atmosphere this game builds is spooky but curious, horrific but charming. It's the perfect balance that somehow tells a story without any dialogue. I love that "the end" is not really the end, too. I can't wait to continue to play and really uncover everything it has to offer.

Congratulations to the team, y'all really killed it here.

This game is simply an extremely solid puzzle metroidvania game. No combat needed to explore a sprawling map full of puzzles and secrets. You play as a little guy in a interconnected environment surrounded by towering wolves, iguanas, and cranes that won't hesitate to eat you. It has all the good metroidvania qualities: nonlinear, absolutely no hand-holding, and upgrades that recontextualizes previous parts of a sprawling labyrinth. The puzzles also get pretty insane, with puzzles having mechanics I would have never seen coming. The game definitely has several layers, where a large chunk of the game is beyond the first ending. If you want to experience a great puzzle metroidvania, this is the game for you.

Little bit expensive but definitely a good game with a lot of soul and passion lots of puzzles

While I enjoyed the game's atmosphere and about 8 hours of gameplay, I think Animal Well fails to deliver on its overarching puzzles. It's a string of increasingly elaborate meta-puzzles with no substance to pull them together. I'm not really interested in puzzles for their own sake which add nothing meaningful to a game's world.

Great puzzle explorer, kind of metroidvania, great visual and audio experience, but the locations can get a little too similar

A compelling world filled to the brim with secrets. Animal Well is a puzzle game for the ages. Akin to solving a complex Zelda dungeon with layers upon layers. Highly recommended.

This is the most beautiful and well made game I have ever played. The puzzles were all incredibly clever - while I often got frustrated, the feeling of figuring some new mechanic or puzzle out was so rewarding. I love this game so much

Very unique game. Best to just dive in blind and discover things. I watched a youtuber playing this blindly and he went about it totally differently than me (not figuring out some game mechanics I picked up easily), yet he picked up on a game mechanic that I was oblivious to! I love games that have multiple paths, sequence breaks, and secrets all over the place. Puzzles are very clever in this game, too. I'm enjoying it very much and it seems to be worth the $ so far.

The game is unbelievably pretty and has layers and layers of easter eggs and extra content. It's so engrossing it just sucks up your time

I really like the style of this :)

It can be a bit frustrating when you are struggling to find out how to get to point A to point B, but its really rewarding to finally get it.
Its the kind of game that throws you into the game with a basic tutorial on how to move, access inventory, use items, etc, then just throws you into the game where you have to relatively find things out on your own. Even in the tutorial you kind of have to find out on your own a bit, but it gives you the right terrain for you to realize you can do something.
I feel most Rainworld players would enjoy this game considering the same idea and interesting style + procedural animation.

it is a bit pricey considering the type of game it is but if you enjoy Rainworld or any other game like Rainworld in some way i recommend at least giving it a shot

So it's a Metroidvania. Fine, fair enough. It looks and sounds good in that charmingly retro sense- in the "intentionally retro, not because the guy who made it can't do anything better" way. But that's nothing that hasn't been done before. You need to go further to realize what makes this game great.

So I did my first clear. Found many eggs, did the main story progression, all of that. Also find a weird [redacted by Logstar] by [redacted by Logstar] which raises some questions. Then there are all of the background features that get you thinking...that has to mean something.

The thing that makes this game interesting is that it all does. Or at least I think. I'm not sure at this point. People talk about the layers. There's layer 1, which is what people will do for a completion, layer 2, which is the formal 100% layer, layer 3, which is a level where some truly strange, obscure puzzles come up that are a community effort and only for true completionists...and then there's layer 4. That's the thing. I can't say too much without spoiling but it feels like this game keeps going deeper. There's a solid Metroidvania that feels good including the 100% stuff. Then you go deeper and there are these obscure puzzles that it took a community to find. And the amazing part is it doesn't feel like we're done yet.

In a certain sense that's both what's great and what's awful about Animal Well. The third layer is done. There is this sense of FOMO from when the community was solving these brutal puzzles since we won't be able to recreate that unless there are groups of many people going in blind together. The fourth layer may or may not be done...and that's what does it. Few games go this deep and still give the feeling that there's more we haven't found. I hope we haven't. I hope I didn't miss it.

And no matter what you think of this specific game it feels like this is going to be a huge influence on the future of the genre. This is the beginning. It feels like, in the future, other developers, even big-budget ones, will start adding these deeper layers. I think this is the beginning of a new generation of Metroidvanias and that generation will do spectacular things.