Colouring books are amazing tools. They can keep children entertained, help adults de-stress and they’re often filled with quirky characters. Chicory: A Colorful Tale is a game that takes the concept of colouring books and transforms it into a wholesome adventure, and it’s heading to PS4 and PS5!
Chicory: A Colorful Tale tells the tale of a world where all the colours have vanished. It’s up to the player (and an adorable little dog protagonist) to wield a magic paintbrush and restore the world’s colour to its former vibrancy. The game’s Steam page claims that the game is “like Zelda in a colouring book world, with a dash of Animal Crossing!”. Sounds like an ideal mashup to me.
Drawing in video games isn’t exactly new, with the genre being prominent on the Nintendo DS with games like Drawn to Life.
However, there’s very little out there when it comes to games that use drawing and painting as their primary loop. This is something that Chicory’s creator, Greg Lobanov, was inspired by when making his game. Lobanov previously worked on the indie title Wandersong and explained this new game’s premise in a PlayStation Blog post.
“At the outset, I was just wondering if you could make a game where the main player interaction was drawing,” Lobanov explains in the PlayStation Blog post. “but this game felt like the ultimate opportunity to engage an audience with their own creativity, and to tell a story that intersected with all that too.”
The game is being published by Finji, the studio behind indie greats like Night in the Woods and Wilmot’s Warehouse. The PlayStation Blog also reveals some of the talents behind this new project, with various familiar names hailing from the indie game scene:
“Chicory: A Colorful Tale was stitched together by a team of development veterans and new voices to the industry. Led by Lobanov, Chicory’s engaging mechanics have been moulded and fine-tuned by a small team of collaborators. Award-winning composer Lena Raine (Minecraft, Celeste, Guild Wars 2) arranged for live performances from musicians across the whole sprawling soundtrack.
“Sound designers Em Halberstadt (Night in the Woods, Untitled Goose Game, Wandersong) and Preston Wright lent their talent to the game by coming up with not just all of the satisfying gooey sounds that paint makes but also the full range of sound that makes Chicory’s world feel truly alive.”
Chicory: A Colorful Tale is set to release in 2021 and is coming to PS4, PS5 and Steam.
Featured Image Credit: Finji