Coming to us from developer Studio Plane Toast and publisher Dear Villagers is Caravan SandWitch, a cozy sci-fi exploration game that involves the player looking for their missing sister.
What is Caravan SandWitch?
The announcement was made through a trailer showing the main character exploring the game’s world, both by walking and by using their van. The van has various tools equipped and can be upgraded as the story progresses, which will allow players to access new passages and ruins to explore. These tools, combined with exploring the game’s world, will help players uncover the truth regarding the disappearance of their sibling. The player won’t need to rush themselves through the adventure as the game doesn’t contain any combat, timers, or death. Accessibility options will also be included in the game.
The game’s setting, ‘Cigalo,’ is inspired by the Provence countryside in southern France and the planet has been impacted due to human activities and being over-exploited. Cigalo contains both forests and deserts to traverse through, as well as some industrial areas and the aforementioned ruins.
The protagonist won’t be alone on their journey, as they’ll also be interacting with Cigalo’s inhabitants. There are the remaining humans who stayed behind while everyone else left for another planet; robots who’ve been abandoned after the planet was exploited; the Reinetos, “an old aboriginal species,”; and the enigmatic SandWitch. All of them work to help one another survive on Cigalo. As the game goes on, the protagonist will come to understand that this community is their home and that should help everyone live comfortably in the harsh environment they’re living in.
On Steam, Plane Toast wrote that it was important to create a game world where everyone could feel included. The studio also said that the world would represent “their vision of a world where communities help each other to overcome the environmental consequences of our world.” Caravan SandWitch is also written with an inclusive script and will be used to represent the people of a real community.
A demo trailer from last year explains that the main character’s name is Halice, who crash-landed on a planet and is planning on calling her mother to come pick her up. However, the nearest radio tower is very far away, but the locals that inhabit the planet are willing to help Halice. Given that this information conflicts with what the latest trailer says about the game, it’s likely that some aspects of the game have been changed after the demo trailer was released.
No release date has been given for Caravan SandWitch, but the trailer says it’s coming to PC, PS5, and Nintendo Switch (sorry, Xbox owners).
