ANIMAL WELL

Explore a dense, interconnected labyrinth, and unravel its many secrets. Collect items to manipulate your environment in surprising and meaningful ways. Encounter beautiful and unsettling creatures, as you attempt to survive what lurks in the dark. There is more than what you see.

ANIMAL WELL is a exploration, metroidvania and puzzle game developed by Billy Basso and published by Bigmode.
Released on May 09th 2024 is available only on Windows in 11 languages: English, French, Italian, German, Spanish - Spain, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese - Brazil, Russian, Ukrainian and Korean.

It has received 18,593 reviews of which 17,882 were positive and 711 were negative resulting in an impressive rating of 9.4 out of 10. 😍

The game is currently priced at 24.50€ on Steam.

The Steam community has classified ANIMAL WELL into these genres:

Exploration Metroidvania Puzzle Puzzle-Platformer Pixel Graphics Horror Platformer 2D Atmospheric Adventure Mystery Action Surreal Relaxing Nonlinear Cute Indie Singleplayer Retro Controller

Media & Screenshots

Get an in-depth look at ANIMAL WELL through various videos and screenshots.

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Requirements

These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.

Windows

Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10
Processor: 1 GHz
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Graphics: Integrated
DirectX: Version 12
Storage: 35 MB available space

Reviews

Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.

Sept. 2024

there's plenty to say about this beautiful game but i want to hone in on one aspect of it that most impressed me. as i played animal well i was pretty confused at the tools i was being given. when i first started to explore i thought to myself: wow, the movement is slow and my jump sucks. but, maybe the first item will help? i then got to the first item. it was a frisbee. like, the toy. i was flabbergasted, but i quickly realised it could be used to hit switches from range. it was cool, i guess, but i was still disappointed with it. it felt like a tool designed for a singular purpose, so to me it seemed to stifle my creative thinking. and then i accidentally landed on the frisbee and watched in awe as my character rode it across the screen. animal well is a rare example of a game where discovering an intended feature made me feel like i had just found a cheat code, or an unintended bug. this game is full of that. I got a second item, and realised it too had equally 'game breaking' potential. similar revelations just kept happening. i'm sure by the conclusion of the game a majority of players would discover most if not all of these, but nonetheless they still felt like such niche techniques, almost like something you'd see in a speedrun. i felt awesome for discovering cool 'movement techs' that were in fact not only intended by the developers but absolutely necessary to complete some rooms. knowing these interactions were planned did not ruin it for me. instead i felt inclined to master what I had discovered, so i could overcome new challenges. it is a thrilling feeling. you should play animal well.

May 2024

I really, really don't care for platforming. Generally I've never felt like I had the dexterity or timing to make it work, even in my younger years before I hit the decrepit stage. And Animal Well, as such, annoys the hell out of me. It's so fiddly with these jumping puzzles, and all the timing, and trying to work it all out. And yet I do keep starting it up. One by one, I do manage to get through a puzzle here and there and move on to the next very, very weird set-piece. It's compelling in ways I can't adequately describe, and so in spite of feeling so frustrated I just keep going with it. And that's probably the best endorsement these aging fingers can manage to type out.

May 2024

Review after achievements completed: Animal Well All the reviews I've seen about this game are either hyperbolically positive or straight-up memes, so let me be a joyless nerd and provide a more nuanced take. Animal Well is a solid metroidvania with more than its fair share of puzzles and mysteries, none more baffling than how Billy Basso managed to cram all of it into a mere 40 MB. As with many modern puzzle games, there's a sort of exponential difficulty curve; the majority of the puzzles - certainly all that are required to beat the game - are pretty straightforward. Beyond that, truly completing the game, without resorting to a guide, will require an unreasonable amount of hours triple- and quadruple-checking every room on the map for something you missed, and comparing notes with at minimum several dozen of your friends to work out some ARG-level esoterically vague hints. Mercifully, the truly capricious requirements - the speedruns, the deathless runs, what have you - do not have achievements tied to them. Still, this is a game that you should walk into with the expectation that you will eventually need a guide if you want to keep your sanity. "A traveler's guide to Animal Well" is great, with excellent use of spoiler tags. I ding'd all of the achievements for Animal Well in a little under 16 hours - which is not to say I completed it. I resorted to the use of the aforementioned guide once I only had a handful of late-game collectibles left, because re-combing the whole labyrinth for where to use my third(!!!) incredibly situational niche item didn't strike me as a good way to spend my time. If this doesn't strike you as a glowing review, that's because it isn't. Animal Well is definitely good! The thumbs-up is right there; don't come at me. I do like the novel takes on how your character's abilities improve; I recommend Supraland if you want more of those unexpected spins on familiar mechanics. I just didn't walk away from it with the ecstatic euphoria that seems commonplace in its reviews, whether because of the fiddly platforming or because of the aforementioned niche items. Still, all that said - recommended.

May 2024

This game made me understand why my husband likes Metroid so much. It's not my usual type of game (I stick to things like Sims, Rimworld, and Stardew Valley) but I am very invested. The atmosphere, the feelings of discovery, the visuals! I'm glad I gave it a chance.

May 2024

ANIMAL WELL's modern yet retro artstyle gives the game a stunningly unique vibe, while also paying homage to classic games such as Halo 2 and Halo 3.

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Last Updates

Steam data	10 January 2025 00:34
SteamSpy data	17 January 2025 11:30
Steam price	22 January 2025 20:51
Steam reviews	21 January 2025 10:07

24.50€

9.4

17,882

711

Online players

358

Developer

Billy Basso

Publisher

Bigmode

Release 09 May 2024

Platforms