After breaking away from Sony in March, Tequila Works has revealed that they have a new publisher and their newest game, Rime, is aiming for a release sometime next year. According to Polygon, Rime’s new publishers are Grey Box and Six Foot. While here’s still no official release date for Rime, the developer’s eyes are set on a 2017 release.
Six Foot explained their interest of the game to Eurogamer:
Tequila Works has put an immense amount of passion and creativity into shaping a beautiful and deeply personal universe, and we’re all excited to share that experience with gamers next year.
Rime is Tequila Works’ sophomore title. Their debut title, Deadlight, was a 2D platformer with an emphasis on storytelling and art direction. Though the game received mixed reviews, there were some publications such as Game Informer and IGN who praised it. Tim Turi of Game Informer gave the game an 8.0 and wrote, “Deadlight mixes Shadow Complex‘s impressive 2.5D visuals, Limbo‘s rewarding platforming puzzles, and The Walking Dead‘s grim atmosphere. The resulting cocktail is potent.” Ryan McCaffrey of IGN gave the game an 8.5 and called it”one of the finest XBLA titles of the year.” However, Both Turi and McCaffrey agreed that the Deadlight’s storytelling and gameplay fell short when compared to Limbo.
In terms of visuals, Rime is a massive departure from Deadlight. Unlike Deadlight’s dark silhouetted art-style, Rime is bright and filled with color. Rime centers around a young boy who is shipwrecked on a mysterious island. The premise is very similar to adventure games such as Myst, as the game centers around solving puzzles to uncover the mysteries behind the island. The game’s art direction has been compared by Polygon to the works by Studio Ghibli. The game’s look and child protagonist is also very reminiscent of another Sony title, Ico. This game team marks Tequila Work’s shift from 2D platforming to full on 3D platforming.
According to Polygon, a representative from Sony made the following announcement:
SCE is no longer proprietary of the IP, nor the publisher of the game.
Tequila Works bought the rights of the game back from Sony. Now that Sony has departed as the game’s publisher, Rime will no longer be exclusive to the PlayStation 4. With these new publishers comes new possible platforms. What platforms the game will be available on are unknown at this time.