#wunderling

Indie Game Spotlight: Wunderling

This week we got tired of playing a hero and decided to be a goon. Today’s Indie Game Spotlight covers Wunderling, a 2D platformer that features some of the best pixel art you’ll ever see. Think 16- and 32-bit platformers, if they made the most of 32,000 colors and fluid animation to deliver something truly magical. In the game, you play as a low-level video game goon tasked by the evil witch Kohlrabi to track down and defeat the hero, Carrot Man—a job made slightly easier because you’ve just been given the power to JUMP!  

We chatted with Niklas Istenes, founder and CEO of Retroid, who also fulfilled the roles of producer and game designer on Wunderling. Read on!

What was the main inspiration for the game?

Wunderling is based on an older game we made called Cow Dash, where the player plays a cow that can’t stop moving forward and backward. It’s sort of the same mechanic, except we developed the story, pixel art, and code from scratch for Wunderling. Wind-up Knight was a source of inspiration as well.

How does Wunderling differ from other platformers?

Wunderling is quite unique because the character can’t stop or change direction at will. You need to plan ahead to navigate each level and decide which walls you want to bounce from to change direction. The game has more than 100 levels, all of which are handcrafted and contain a hidden treasure. Merely completing a level won’t be super challenging at first, but if you want more depth, we really recommend going for the treasure! Getting it and completing the level will yield valuable customization items such as glasses, hats, video game references, and more. Wunderling also features a very interesting story, penned by Alex Faciane, in which you get to see the bad guys squabbling behind the scenes :)

If you could have a crossover with any video game franchise, what would it be and why? 

The game makes several references to other franchises—Super Mario Bros., in particular. However, once you go deeper into Wunderling, the similarities give way for a totally unique experience. You might have guessed that I’m also a big fan of Super Smash Bros. It would be AWESOME to have a crossover with Nintendo’s IP, but the Wunderling would not be a particularly good fighter: It would just keep walking, thus falling off the stage!

If you were placed in your game, do you think you would survive?

Being dropped into the Vegetable Kingdom as myself? I think I’d be totally fine since basically everyone is a vegetable. What harm could they possibly do to me? I’d be safe except for those nasty spike balls…

Storytime! So Anthony and I spent all this time at the #wunderling booth checking out the game and finally meeting @facianea and @thecompletionist but I only awkwardly say hi and briefly talk to Alex before we leave. We walk away and Anthony breaks out his pictures and I’m just like !!! I should have asked for a picture 😩 but at this point I’m like do I really wanna be that weirdo who goes back for a picture after leaving? And he’s just like it’s up to you, we’re passing by them again. If you don’t want to embarrass you, I’ll embarrass you lol. And I’m like okay fine. So we get back to their booth and Anthony goes up to them and says “hey we were here earlier but my friend was too nervous to ask for a picture.” And Gerard is all like “You want a picture?? Yea get over here!” So I do. And he’s just like “You know what this means right? You get a Beard Bros sandwich!” And I didn’t know what to do with myself lmao

Wunderling Review | TheXboxHub

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What if the bad guy was the protagonist? One with hopes and dreams, and not some common thing to be stomped on. This is the premise of Wunderling– a clever little puzzle platformer where players have access to the quintessential jump button and a few other tricks. While largely simple in both gameplay mechanics and game design, Wunderling functions well thanks to its bite-sized levels…

If you think about it from the right perspective, Mario is a monster. Think of all of the little Goombas that he has killed - Goombas who were just minding their own business and living their lives! Heck, think about how Bowser must feel! He just invited Peach over to his castle - maybe a little forcefully - and now Mario is tearing down his kingdom!

As silly as that seems, the developers of Wunderling have taken that premise and run with it. Their platform puts you in the shoes of a lowly underling, and asks what happens if that underling were made... a little more wonderful. What if the equivalent of a Goomba were given the power to jump?