With a game developer name like Snot Bubbles Productions, one would imagine the Vancouver-based team to have a first game straight out of the gate that’s going to be pretty darn interesting.  Or kind of damp and sticky, ewww.

Welcome to Boreal Tales, folks.

The game is out now and it’s a paltry $3.00 or Steam or itch.io and that makes it for me, an automatic purchase even though I was offered a free code to review. Small developers with a great looking game such as this need a boost with any sales they can get and I really like these offbeat games, so it’s on my BUY IT! list as we speak. Anyway, “What’s the game about?” you may be asking right about now. Well, I’ll duck quickly into show and tell mode here (quack, quack!):

Vancouver, Canada –May 19, 2020– For lovers of classic 3D retro-style adventures and fans of gore and horror movies, one-man independent game studio Snot Bubbles Productions release Boreal Tales on Steam today.

Delve into the dream of a dying town in Boreal Tales, a fixed-camera game which will remind you the old PS1 classics, and explore an urbanized world as you solve a murder, find Sarah and complete the ritual.

“Boreal Tales is a mature story-driven quest featuring a twirling plot and multi-dimensional characters”, says Daniel Beaulieu, solo-dev at Snot Bubbles Productions. “It’s particular art-style will instantly shock you!”

Boreal Tales is available on both Steam and itch.io, and it contains strong language and gore such as disembodied heads floating in blood, bodies hanging, zombies eating corpses and disfigured people.

The trailer above got me quite interested, but the two in-game engine shorts below really piqued my interest even more. Take a look:

In addition, here’s a nice 360 degree video to poke at, The game proper doesn’t require a virtual reality setup to run, but I like what the developer has done here: 

I’m liking the retro look of the polygonal art combined with the fluid animation and excellent voice acting. The music is also quite lovely. As far as the content, it’s also in the wheelhouse here, as a good mystery make for a grand time overall, gore aside. Well. let me get to the buying and installing parts now. I think my weekend may be a bit more interesting on a few fronts. I’ll pop back in with impressions soon.

-GW