Animal Well is shaping up to be the most acclaimed metroidvania since Hollow Knight

One of the best-reviewed games of the year so far launched on Steam today. In his 90% Animal Well review for PC Gamer, Shaun said that the 2D metroidvania «may go down in history as one of the genre's best,» and other critics agree. Here's a smattering of the acclaim:

Animal Well was made by solo indie developer Billy Basso, who says he spent nearly seven years on the project. It is also the first game published by Bigmode, a company founded in 2022 by married YouTubers Jason «Videogamedunkey» Gastrow and Leah «Leahbee» Gastrow with an aim to «publish some of the very best games out there.» 

When he announced the venture, Dunkey emphasized his record of trashing «soulless cash grabs» while lifting up indie games like Hollow Knight and Celeste, saying that he only wants to work with «the most passionate and creative people out there.» It's only one game, but so far so good, looks like.

Animal Well creator Basso previously worked as a programmer for game studios including NetherRealm, and founded his indie studio, Shared Memory, in 2020. The studio is just him, plus assistance from self-described «business-y guy» Dan Adelman, a former indie dev liaison for Xbox and Nintendo who now independently provides business and marketing services for small developers.

A couple hours after launch, Animal Well is climbing Steam's top sellers chart, and is number eight globally at the time of writing. Its Steam rating—an average that's of great significance these days—is sitting at «Very Positive» so far with about 300 reviews.

Polygon's reviewer advises playing Animal Well without any foreknowledge, which I say as a warning that I'm going to give you a little bit of foreknowledge in the next paragraph, so back out now if you want to go in knowing nothing. 

What none of the Steam reviewers who just started playing Animal Well will know yet, unless they've read our review or another one, is that the end is not the end. «The credits rolling in Animal Well just marks the end of one