Having worked on Counter-Strike: GO and Defense Grid, can you guess what Hidden Path Entertainment is doing next? You probably wouldn’t have guessed a game that was “two parts Minecraft and one part Fez with a dash of Proteus’ dreaminess sprinkled over the top” on your first try, but that’s pretty much exactly what they’re doing with Windborne, a single- and multi-player game featuring friendly pet dragons wiggling to a tinkerbox soundtrack.
Talking to Destructoid, Hidden Path’s Michael Austin says that there is “an evolving single-player mystery that players can choose to investigate at their own pace, and you can continue to invest time in your island or guide it towards a self-sustaining state in order to focus more on exploration, interaction, and collaboration with other players… [or you can] just completely ignore the quest lines and just build, and at any point you can take your single-player world online.”
I’m fairly certain this is the most aww-worthy thing I’ve seen in gaming since the incineration of my weighted companion cube. You’ve got a floating sky-island stuffed full of treasure to explore. Your building blocks are encased in bubbles to facilitate your effortlessness in tossing ‘em around, and you’ll get to visit friends’ islands and even breed an army of baby dragons. I’m currently squealing at a pitch only dogs can hear. Windborne’s aiming for a beta release via Steam Early Access late this year.