If my 2018 was the year of anything, it was surely the year of knowing your place. The games I’ve picked out in hindsight are united by the idea of understanding how you fit into a complex world – appreciating the intricacy of the variables and relationships that surround every given moment, whether your overall aim be to subdue them or just survive them. That and a fondness for long words and creative sci-fantasy concepts, anyway. Read on, adventurer, for much talk of gods, spiders and spaceships.

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This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites developers to discuss the difficult journeys they ve taken to make their games. This time, Ghost Of A Tale [official site].

Every time I see Ghost Of A Tale I m taken aback by its beauty. Its world of cracked flagstones, knurled furniture, twisting passages, haphazard towers and lush vegetation looks like it s truly lived in by its population of woodland creatures; by authoritarian rats, scurrying criminal mice and pirate frogs.

All that detail lends Ghost Of A Tale the feel that it s the product of a large studio, of a team of artists leaning on years of experience. But it wasn t. Ghost Of A Tale s world was made, fundamentally, by just one person. One person, in fact, who d never even made a game before. Lionel Seith Gallatt created every texture, level layout and model, animated them and did a great deal of the programming that underpins it all. Not bad for someone who d previously been Despicable Me s animation director. (more…)

Psst. I know mum said you weren t allowed to listen to those hellions on your favourite podcast anymore, but the hosts of the Electronic Wireless Show won t tell if you don t. This week we re talking about the games we weren t allowed to play as youngsters, but did anyway. Alice suffered strict rationing of The Sims 2, and Dave (oh hello Dave) was looked at with concern while playing Silent Hill. Brendan s parents didn t seem to care. Let s all go to Brendan s house. He s got GTA 2. (more…)

Ghost Of A Tale is out of early access, letting you squeak your way past an army of rats, in a rodent stealth-cum-RPG. Is it the big cheese, or lost in the rat race? And considering these incredibly obvious puns, why on Earth isn’t it called “Ghost Of A Tail”? (more…)

Leave no rodent behind that s the motto of the RPS podcast, the Electronic Wireless Show. With the release of Warhammer: Vermintide 2, we decided to celebrate the lovable dirtbag of videogames. The lowly, filthy, wonderful rat. Whether you are murdering five of them in cold blood for an RPG hotel owner, or pledging your sword to a disgusting subterranean monarch, there s room in your heart for the humble rat.

And your intestine. And lung. Basically, shove over, organs. Make room for the rats.

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We first started covering Ghost of a Tale back in 2013, and it was quite stunningly gorgeous even then. You’d think that five years would have dulled the edge of a game so heavily banking on the quality of its 3d art, but it seems that every update the game has received during its lengthy time in Early Access has only made it prettier.

Joining a recent glut of indie passion projects finally reaching fruition, the ambitious miniature-scale fantasy adventure has finally left its mouse-hole and ventured out into the scary, predator-filled world of commercial game releases. It’s okay, little fella. We won’t eat you, although you do look good enough to eat…

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Rat-avoiding stealth adventure Ghost of a Tale is finally scampering out of its early access bolthole on March 15, says the developer. You remember this mousey hero, don t you? It s Tilo. He s very cute and sometimes wears clunky steel armour, which doesn t make him intimidating but only more adorable. He s been scurrying around under the development floorboards for five years but seems ready to poke his twitching nose out and make a panicked sprint towards the exit. (more…)

Every Monday, Brendan scurries through the undergrowth of the great early access fields. This week, he gets paws-on with rodent adventure Ghost of a Tale [official site].>

Let’s just pick up all our jaws from the floor first. I mean, look at this game. Look at it. From the Gormenghast-style dungeons to the cute, gormless expression on protagonist Tilo’s mousey face, there is a beauty to this five-person project that many bigger studios could not hope to replicate. What do you expect when the head of the studio is a former Dreamworks animator? Yes, this world of mice and rats and spiders looks spectacular. I want us all to agree on that. Sadly, as a game, it is also perilously old-fashioned.

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The Redwall series by Brian Jacques were some of my favorite novels growing up, so I’m absolutely giddy to try out Ghost of a Tale [official site], an action-RPG where you play a minstrel mouse. It launched into a few days back. With light elements of stealth, Ghost of a Tale lets you explore a medieval keep while you complete quests and interact with its anthropomorphic cast of characters you know what? Just watch the trailer. It’s oozing with charm.

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