Shelter designers toy with Tamagotchi-styled prequel

Shelter developer Might & Delight is bringing to life a prequel to the badger-based title, influenced by Tamagotchi simulation games, lead designer Andreas Wangler stated in a postmortem posted on Gamasutra.

Little information was offered up regarding Nurture, which is still currently in its experimental phase; However, its development follows on from the lessons learned throughout the creation of its predecessor. While the studio's best known work may be platformer Pid, Shelter represents a more casual and accessible path for the developers to experiment with.

"The main idea then was to develop something that commercially would work better, that spoke to a wider audience, almost casual. Pid had shown itself to be a game aimed at a narrow hardcore audience," said Wangler. "Well, now nine months later we have the final product, Shelter."

Shelter did not become a commercial success, but maintained a strong backing from the gaming community.

"After Pid's release some of us were in a bad state because of burnout," he said of the development process.

"It was important that our work on Shelter wouldn't continue down that path. With new creative energy we threw ourselves out on thin ice to make a completely different game, with hopes that it would speak to a wider audience. Seeing the many reactions from people on YouTube playing the game, and reading about people crying at the end of the game, makes us think we actually touched a few thousand hearts out there. That to me is a job well done."

Wangler also hinted the studio may be working on a real-time strategy title, stating "You never know..."