Tsioque is a dark, playful adventure about a little warrior princess

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OhNoo Studio today released a new trailer for Tsioque, an old-timey point-and-click adventure about a young girl imprisoned in her former home, a castle that's been taken over by an evil wizard. The girl, a "little warrior princess" named Tsioque, must escape and thwart the wizard's plans before he can take over all the land. It sounds dire, but as the video makes clear, the game isn't quite as heavy-handed as it may seem.

Tsioque is coming up on the midway point of a Kickstarter campaign that's so far raised a little more than $20,000 of a $35,000 goal. One of the reasons it's noteworthy is the presence of a free, downloadable demo. It's short and, as usual, may not represent the quality of the final product, but it provides a good look at both the art and the style of play. In fact, much of the gameplay in the trailer is taken from the demo.

The developers say in the Kickstarter pitch that Tsioque is inspired by games like Day of the Tentacle, Pajama Sam, Heart of Darkness, Dragon's Lair, and Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis. "[Tsioque is] made in the spirit of the classics I grew up with, but, at the same time, telling an original, personal story," co-creator Alek Wasilewski wrote. "It's both the game I had always wanted to play as a kid and a present for my daughter to enjoy today—for her to have fun, and perhaps even learn something in the process."

The game will be completed and released with or without a successful Kickstarter, OhNoo said. "However, with your support, we can invite more artists to the project and truly let it spread its wings. Everything would get done quicker, be prettier, more detailed—and, eventually, we could simply put everything we intended there, after achieving a certain stretch goal."

Tsioque doesn't have a release date yet, but the estimated Kickstarter delivery date is October 2016, while the campaign itself wraps up on September 5. (And if you're playing the demo, pay heed: The spider on the stairs is your friend.)

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.