Devolver Digital just ushered in the next year of gaming with the Devolver Public Access Holiday Special 2023 showcase. The latest installment in its festive broadcast featured cooking, musical segments, and even some appearances from holiday icons, but more importantly, it gave us a better look at what the publisher is bringing in 2024. Including reappearances for games like perspective-bending The Plucky Squire, the 28-minute show reminded viewers that they still have other games like Baby Steps and Pepper Grinder to look forward to.
The Devolver Public Access Holiday Special might have had the gift you're looking for, but if you missed out on its premiere, we took the time to gather the need-to-know info.
The Plucky Squire
The Pluck Squire was one of the showcase's highlights, giving players more gameplay and maybe more importantly, story information ahead of its 2024 PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S launch. Co-directors James Turner and Jonathan Biddle appeared during the premiere to jokingly talk about protagonist Jot and talk about his battle against Humgrump. This evil, staff-wielding wizard is Jot’s longtime nemesis, and once he discovers that he is the villain in his own story, he decides to throw out the hero and rewrite the narrative.
The new gameplay gives patient fans a better look at how the 2D and 3D gameplay works by including more footage of combat, sentence puzzles, and even some of The Plucky Squire’s more unique features.
Pepper Grinder
Pepper Ginder’s segment in the Devolver Public Access Holiday Special wasn’t quite as normal as many other showcase sections, as it brought in creator Riv Hester to talk about gameplay while cooking up some game-themed cookies. In between recipe drops, the developer talked about and showed off Pepper Grinder’s fast-paced, drill-focused traversal ahead of its 2024 release on PC and Nintendo Switch. As players dig to reach new heights, they’ll encounter a variety of obstacles that can all be conquered with careful drill use. Standard enemies, bosses, puzzles, and more can all be handled with your sharp, spinning tool, with every area bringing unique challenges.
Baby Steps
Bennett Foddy and Gabe Cuzzillo also appeared in paper form to give the latest on Baby Steps, which is still slated to stumble its way to PC and PlayStation 5 in 2024 “probably.” The duo’s section had an unscripted feel as they talked about their not-so-heroic hero, Nate, and his journey. Dynamic soil effects will paint players’ onesie as they tumble and trip their way through the story.
Stick it to the Stickman
Our latest Stick it to the Stickman trailer put the spotlight on gameplay while pushing gamers to apply for jobs through StickedIn, a completely real and not-at-all fictional job site. Developer Free Lives is still making the stick-person combat game they had previously promised, as the fighting shown off in today’s trailer showed a filing cabinet worth of different techniques.
Cricket Through the Ages
Free Lives and Devolver Digital have more in store, too, as their Apple Arcade exclusive, Cricket Through the Ages, was announced to come to PC and Switch sometime early 2024.
Stocking Stuffers
The Devolver Public Access Holiday Special’s poorly greenscreened hosts, Mr. Meatless and Santa, also reminded viewers of many of the the Devolver Digital games of past, present, and future. You can see everything else that made an appearance with footage below:
- Anger Foot
- Disc Room
- The Talos Principle 2
- OmniBus
References to dozens of other Devolver Digital games can be found throughout the holiday special, but that’s not all. Keen-eyed viewers might have caught some Steam codes hidden throughout the show.
The Devolver Public Access Holiday Special wrapped up without any mind-boggling announcements, but the publisher still delivered what it’s best at: a bizarre showcase with lots of interesting games to look forward to.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
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