Noita devs show off their new magic rogue-lite

Noita, or “Witch”, permadeath, procedural levels and sorcery, oh my!

Nolla Games have this week been showing off progress to date on their latest title. Noita, a pixel art rogue-lite is in development by the guys who brought us The Swapper, Environmental Station Alpha, as well as a host of other indie titles.

The Game

Noita is set in a pixel art world where anything or everything can be affected by the player’s actions. Navigating 2D caves, the player can use wands of varying description to burn, freeze, and melt their way through puzzles and enemies alike. Wands can be customized and spells crafted to enhance your powers. Environments and the elements will play a vital role in how an area can be approached. The player must think their way through each area anew, as each playthrough will differ from the last. Death will be permanent, but according to the dev team will also always provide lessons going forward.

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The Developer

Nolla Games are an interesting bunch. Comprising 3 self-claimed nerds based in Helsinki, they are:

• Petri Purho, creator of Crayon Physics Deluxe
• Olli Harjola, creator of the Swapper
• Arvi Teikari, creator of Environment Station Alpha

Separately they have created and released over 150 indie games. Their most successful titles I’ve already mentioned, along with some less than stellar games such as “You have to knock the Penis”. Granted I haven’t played that one, I’m happy to judge it by its title!

Interestingly as well the team has created their own graphics engine. Known as the “Falling Everything Engine”, it is best described in the teams own words:

Falling Everything Engine is an in-house labor of love. A true love child. Handcrafted in the finest C++ without exceptions, using only hand picked, organic, free license libraries. The engine allows large-scale, physics-based worlds, where everything consists of interactive, simulated pixels with varying chemical and physical properties: some are liquid, some are gas-like, some are sand, some form larger rigid bodies.

The Trailer

It’s fairly obvious from browsing the material on these guys they have a unique sense of humor to match their games style. We can expect that to translate into an interesting mix of game-play in Noita. Think elemental based action puzzler with a cool dry wit, and beautifully colored pixel art. No release date as yet, but given the recent press access expect early access on PC, probably Steam, in the coming months. For the games reveal trailer check below, and for all else gaming stay right here.