Creaks, the next weird game from Amanita Design, is coming later this month

In some ways, the upcoming platformer Creaks appears to be a departure for Amanita Design, which is best known for point-and-click adventures like Machinarium, Samorost, and Botanicula. In others, though, it looks to be very on-brand, because going by the new trailer released today, it's still going to be very weird.

Creaks is a sidescrolling puzzle-adventure about a young man in a mansion where some very strange things are happening—things that compel him to explore "a world inhabited by avian folk and seemingly deadly furniture monsters." It will offer dozens of "carefully designed puzzles" that can be taken at their own pace, with hidden paintings and a "great secret" to discover, and like previous Amanita games will feature a hand-drawn visual style and an "eclectic original score," this one by Joe Acheson's Hidden Orchestra project.

And even though Creaks is not a traditional Amanita adventure, I have very high hopes for it. The studio's 2018 release Chuchel eschewed most conventional adventure game trappings for a wild slapstick rage-comedy ride, and it was fantastically good—it somehow manages to maintain this level of energy through its entire running length.

Creaks doesn't have a release date set yet, but Amanita said it will be out sometime this month.

Andy Chalk

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.