Guildlings

Threes! creator unveils mysterious new project

Guildlings is a new mobile fantasy adventure game from Sirvo Studios, the team behind 2014’s mobile puzzler Threes!, that might explore some of the lesser-seen sides of fantasy. Game designer Asher Vollmer and the Sirvo team have released sparing details for this new project set to be out in 2017, which we’re happy to wait for as Threes! was one of our favorite games of 2014.

Though deceptively simple, the amount of meticulous design behind Threes! is staggering, both in terms of the actual puzzle design and the seamless user experience. But even with the success of Threes!, Vollmer wasn’t satisfied to continue making puzzle games. “People expect me to keep making tiny little puzzle games,” he told the Los Angeles Times, “But meanwhile, I am an actual person who is interested in game design and pushing it in different ways. I’m interested in different dimensions of it.”

concept art of sneaker-and-spike-clad teens

So he explored those different dimensions in two follow-up games, Close Castles, a fast-paced player-versus-player battle and Royals, an inscrutable, lo-fi peasant simulator. Now he’s putting those ideas to work at a much larger scope with Guildlings.

Guildlings

Where Threes! and Vollmer’s other small games were heavy on logic and lighter on story, Guildlings looks to be guided by a much more complex narrative:

“We know a place where mages run raves,

harpies haunt the suburbs,

and a road trip can save the world.

Follow us.”

Though exactly what that narrative will be is all up to speculation until Sirvo drops more details, the concept art of sneaker-and-spike-clad teens on a possibly world-saving roadtrip evokes a certain sense of wonder and mystery. And does the magical tome-like smartphone hint that magic and technology won’t just co-exist in this fantasy world, but be linked? They’ve promised more details on the Guildings website later this year.