STEALER: a stunning cyberpunk platformer focusing on "atmosphere and exploration"

I didn't know it, but I've been missing something since I first played Flashback all those many years ago. There's been a hole in my heart for a cyberpunk-ish sci-fi game with exquisite pixel art and music, and pretty much nothing around to fill it. STEALER should do. Its developer Winged Doom has released a trailer showcasing the style and mood of the game; it's a mockup containing no actual gameplay, but offering a glimpse of what this stunning game should look like when it's done.

"The only thing I can be sure [of is] that I want to create a living world. If I fail with gameplay or [I do] not justify expectations of people who saw movie and say "wow!" I'm not too upset. My main goal [is to] extract this world from [my] head to virtual reality."

Which is fair enough. Some of my favourite games equate to living worlds, and STEALER's is certainly one of the more beautiful I've come across. There's no release date yet, but there's "a lot of work" left to do on the project, so it probably won't be any time soon. Winged Doom is also working on a similarly gorgeous Zelda-a-like called Journey to Hammerdale , which is currently being alpha-tested.

Tom loves exploring in games, whether it’s going the wrong way in a platformer or burgling an apartment in Deus Ex. His favourite game worlds—Stalker, Dark Souls, Thief—have an atmosphere you could wallop with a blackjack. He enjoys horror, adventure, puzzle games and RPGs, and played the Japanese version of Final Fantasy VIII with a translated script he printed off from the internet. Tom has been writing about free games for PC Gamer since 2012. If he were packing for a desert island, he’d take his giant Columbo boxset and a laptop stuffed with PuzzleScript games.