If you think its weird to see the phrases “first person” and “non-violent” in the same sentence, prepare to be weirded out by A Story About My Uncle.
The game, which until recently was actually just a demo, started out as a university project and has been available for free download since 2012. But now Coffee Stain Studios, developers of Sanctum and Sanctum 2, have partnered with Gone North Games to bring the “non-shooter” to Steam later this year. Gone North Games is, of course, the recently formed game development studio staffed entirely by the Södertörns University graduates who created A Story About My Uncle. And as awesome as it is to see these guys parlay a single college homework assignment into a full-fledged career in the game industry, that’s not the reason to be excited.
A Story About My Uncle will be good. Why? Because the free demo, which is sadly no longer available now that an improved version is in the works, was good, letting you explore an eery landscape of floating boulders and bridges with a fun-to-use grappling hook mechanic in search of the titular uncle. What it lacked in violence it made up for in atmosphere, an observation validated by its nomination for Game of the Year in the 2012 Swedish Game Awards. And it wasn’t even a full game then! So unless they go completely overboard and cram in an aunt, a second uncle or a third cousin twice removed, it should be a worthy addition to the Steam library.
