Unbound: Worlds Apart is a pretty puzzle platformer, and you can try a demo today

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Unbound: Worlds Apart is a 2D fantasy puzzle-platformer about a wee wizard named Soli who can open magical portals that enable him to travel through different realities. His abilities are put to the test when his own world is destroyed by a conjuring catastrophe, and it falls to him to figure out what happened and why—and maybe set things right.

Soli doesn't have any weapons at his disposal (at least in the demo) but the portals he can open enable him to get around obstacles in some pretty clever ways, and he can also illuminate the darkness to reveal the occasional unpleasant surprise—although only when he's standing still.

It's visually reminiscent of Limbo, but more colorful and conversational and not quite so oppressively gloomy, and based on the demo I played last week I think it looks really promising. As of today, the demo (with a little more polish) is available to everyone, and it's actually fairly substantial: You probably won't be playing it for hours on end but it will give you a good taste of what the full experience will be like.

A closer look at Unbound: Worlds Apart is available in the Kickstarter campaign that began today. The developers are looking for $25,000 to finish the game, which they expect will be ready to go sometime in 2020. The team has been working on the game since mid-2016 but didn't go full-time on the project until June 2018; they received an Unreal Dev Grant late last year, which helped cover some of the financial costs and also gave them "an enormous burst of confidence" and "the stamina we needed to keep improving our game."

The developers also clarified that the grant does not tie Unbound to the Epic Games Store, saying that they want it to be on as many stores as possible, including Steam, Epic, GOG, and Humble.

The Unbound: Worlds Apart demo is available on Steam, or you can snag it DRM-free from Itch.io. If that's not enough for you, you can also lay eyes on the website ate unboundthegame.com.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.