There are cutesy 2D indie platformers, and then there’s Slime-san. I’m ashamed to admit it passed me by when it first came out back in 2017, dismissing it as just another brutally difficult old school platformer, albeit one with a style of its own. Picking it up a couple of years later, I realised I couldn’t have been further from the truth: yes, Slime-san is another challenging 2D platformer, but it’s got a character, humour and execution that’s simply impeccable and is all of its own.
Which is why I was intrigued by Slime-san developer Fabraz’ follow-up, which goes somewhere surprising yet also familiar – here’s the same tripped-out wit and charm, only this time it’s a fully 3D platformer, all of which seems like quite the leap for the small New York studio.
At the heart of Fabraz is Fabian Rastorfer, a developer who, you can tell after half an hour’s chat, brings a whole lot of heart to his video games. Having been drawn to games as a young kid during the GameCube era, he soon combined his love of the medium with his passion for drawing comics and writing, making his first formative forays with RPG Maker. “It was kind of funny, because I think when I was around 18 I told my parents ‘Okay, I think I’ve made a very important decision – I think I want to get into video game development.’ And I remember distinctly but my parents looking at me like, ‘No shit.'”
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