Craft your own narrative in early 2023
As a fan of both literature and puzzle games, Storyteller has been one of my most anticipated games of the year. The game takes place in the pages of a storybook, and requires players to combine different elements like characters, settings, and objects to create coherent stories. There are multiple ways to solve each puzzle, making for some fun, creative, and challenging gameplay. Storyteller was first announced during last year’s Annapurna Interactive Showcase, which showed off the basic mechanics of the game in a short trailer. After almost a year and a half of waiting, Annapurna finally announced Storyteller‘s official release date for Steam and Nintendo Switch: March 23, 2023.
While indie darling factory Annapurna Interactive is publishing Storyteller, the entire game was a made by a single developer, Daniel Benmergui. It’s a simple premise for a game, but after playing the demo, I can say that it’s impressively crafted and polished. Storyteller is by far the most quaint little puzzle game I’ve seen in a long time, and based on its engaging gameplay, I expect it will make a real name for itself as one of the most delightful releases of next year.
Many of Storyteller‘s puzzles are based on classic stories like Romeo & Juliet, Dracula, the Biblical book of Genesis, and more, much to my delight as a former literary classics-focused English major. Aside from the time-looping take on Hamlet that is the 2019 adventure game Elsinore, and I can’t think of many other games that draw on classic lit, but they really should. I would give anything for a Telltale-style narrative game based on John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, or a Jane Austen-inspired dating simulator. We’re always talking about the intersection between games and film, but I’m much more intrigued with games that take heavily from literature, like the beloved and elegantly-written Disco Elysium.
