Highlights

  • Neva, developed by Nomada Studios, aims to build upon the success of Gris with new mechanics, a touching story, and a more beautiful world.
  • The game features a narrative-driven platformer with a clear story, combat system, and nature-inspired art style, setting it apart from Gris.
  • Neva must balance simplicity and engagement, avoiding overly complex combat and upgrades, to maintain the emotional immersion of its predecessor.

Summer Game Fest 2024 introduced audiences to Nomada Studios' next game, Neva. The developer of Gris, considered one of the best indie games with a high-painted art style, is looking to take what made its hit game work and take it further with new mechanics, a touching story, and an even more beautiful world. While the game's release and other details aren't set in stone, its current content shows that it is reusing and modifying the formula that made its predecessor successful.

Neva's official gameplay trailer was released on the 8th of June 2024 and showed that the game, while looking similar to Gris, has a lot of things to make it a unique experience. Nomada Studios' next entry in the gaming industry will revolve around a woman named Alba and a wolf pup, with the two working and traveling together to save the pup's mother from the dark forces that took her. While there isn't much information to confirm what the game entails, what's presented shows that it will be a narrative-driven platformer with mechanics not present in the developer's previous game. If executed well, Neva could look to see success similar to Gris and maybe take itself a step further.

Neva
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Plenty of interesting games were announced at the PlayStation showcase but Neva, from the makers of Gris, perhaps looked the prettiest.

How Neva Looks to Improve on Gris’ Formula

Given that Neva looks to carry on Gris' legacy, several things should show that the game is doing so. Fortunately, the content in its official trailer displays the promise of the developer's formula being improved in ways that players can look forward to. With what's currently known about Neva, here's how it intends to reach greater heights:

  • Unlike Gris, Neva will have a combat system, making certain encounters engaging and having risks
  • Compared to Gris' ambiguous story that players had to figure out for themselves, Neva has a clear narrative with its protagonist and setting
  • While Gris uses color to give life to its world, Neva uses nature's beauty and its relationship with its inhabitants to depict a larger world with more meaning

Implementing all of this into Neva means that Nomada Studios must ensure it meshes well with the formula it intends to reuse and improve. Considering the game has no promised release date, the developer can use the time to work on interlocking the combat mechanics, art style, and environments to create a seamless and emotional journey. With Gris reaching an impressive milestone in sales and being well-received by its players, there's a good chance that the Neva could do just as well or even better if everything it intends to introduce or reuse is properly developed and executed.

What Neva Shouldn’t Do

Those who have just started playing Gris or completed it will realize that the game's beauty revolves around its simplicity. Its platforming and puzzle-solving are kept simple for players to immerse themselves in the deep story being told. Neva seems to have an emotional plot it wants to share, but it won't be able to do so well if it's too difficult. With the game having combat, it needs to ensure that it's not too hard that players can't progress, but also not too easy that it would make fighting seem pointless. Like Gris, Neva should have the right balance of simplicity and engagement, so that everyone isn't hindered from witnessing and enjoying the progression of the plot.

Another thing the developer shouldn't do with the combat is to give it a complex system. Players will not be able to appreciate a game with an amazing hand-painted art style and story if they're too focused on improving their protagonist to become a lethal warrior. If the game has to have any skills and upgrades, they should be kept as simple as possible. Having players obtain them automatically after reaching a certain point in the plot keeps things going and can help ensure they aren't broken from being immersed in the narrative.

Neva may be looking to become one of the best hand-drawn video games in the industry, but it cannot just rely on the successful formula of its predecessor, Gris. While it has enough going to give it a seemingly unique identity, it still borrows things that made Nomada Studios' previous entry an indie hit. But if Neva manages to use what it took and properly modify and add to it, then it has a chance of becoming an extraordinary title that fans will talk about for a long time.