Sandbox sequel Supraworld gets loose release date, bringing its shrunken hero to early access this year

"Honey, I shrunk the first-person puzzler. Twice." This is how I like to imagine the designer of Supraworld explaining the hijinks that unfold in his life. Supraworld, the sequel to toybox explorer Supraland, is going to hit early access this year, say developers Supra Games in an update post on Steam. These are happy words for anyone who enjoyed 2019's dander among the sandcastles and erasers. A lot of games offer a "sandbox" but in Supraland, the entire world really did take place in exactly that - a sandbox out in a garden, full of toys. The sequel's launch into early access "might be in october," says the post. "We'll see."

Explaining why the studio has again decided to follow the early access route, Supra Games are straight-talking, calling it "a great advantage for feedback and motivation reasons."

"Seeing people play what you're making, you are being reminded why you're actually doing this and try to give people a better time instead of working on something in isolation forever.

"We also simply need the Early Access income because we're working on the game for 3 years now and production is expensive."

I like it when game devs speak plainly. Production is expensive. The previous game was always marketed with a similarly comical frankness. The Steam blurb, often reserved for high-falutin' game summaries, straight up tells you how much time Supraland can take. "Playtime 12-25h." And the game's trailer ends not with a poetic or catchy tagline beneath the title, but a pie chart showing how much of the game is devoted to "exploration," "puzzles", and "fighting". They may as well ask the prospective buyer: "Do you understand there is limited time on this earth? Are you a parent?"

Well, it pleased one dad, at least. In his Supraland review John (RPS in peace) called it "an absolute joy of a game. It really does stand comparisons with Portal, Zelda and Metroid, which is no mean feat."

In Supraworld, you'll be continuing the puzzling and nose-poking as an apprentice "solver" (who needs subtext, eh?) "Solvers are the most important people in this world," says the game's description, "because puzzle storms are rising all over the place, making people's lives harder."