‘Trail’ Released For Free – IGF 2012 Entrant

Ex-Lionhead Studios developers, Matthew Hanlon and Kieran Nee, have released their IGF 2012 entrant, Trail, for free. The game is a simple platformer but holds a much more interesting premise than simply jumping around a level. The game is based on a child’s perspective of life – “When I was a child, I thought you left a trail through the world that you collected when you die.”

Despite being classed as a game short, Trail is actually quite poignant. There are 5 levels in total, each are supplied to the player in a random order. As you run jump and wall climb across the level, you leave a trail of faint memories that actually hurt you, as if recounting a painful past. Your health is indicated by a red colouring inside the man you run along as, and this is drained when coming into contact with any of the game’s many hazards. Once all that health has depleted, the player then effectively dies, and is then shrouded in darkness as they run backwards collecting their memories. The ultimate goal being to get back to that first memory you left behind. Whether you make it or not, the game ends and sums up your life depending on how well you did – how old you were upon dying reflecting level progress, how many memories collected deciding whether it was a life fulfilled or not. It’s quite touching in a weird kind of way, helped a lot by the delicate piano accompaniment. I suddenly want to be a lot more careful so I don’t die young and live an unfulfilled life. Gah! Certainly worth checking out if you find yourself curious.

Due to it only being a 22MB download, not requiring a login or registration, is entirely 2D and runs on XNA; pretty much any modern PC should be able to run Trail. There’s a lesson to be learned there somewhere. Anyway the link is below. Enjoy.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD TRAIL RIGHT NOW

More info on Bit By Bit Games and Trail can be found over at the official website.