Side-scrolling platformer Shu coming to PS3, PS4 and Vita next year

Coatsink will release 2.5D side-scrolling platformer Shu for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita by "the middle of 2015," creative director and co-founder Tom Beardsmore announced via the PlayStation Blog.

Coatsink has previously worked on mobile titles such as Pinch and Fatty. In Shu, players will guide characters with special abilities through a land ravaged by a deadly storm. As players travel, they'll happen upon lost villagers who can join their party; those caught in the storm, however, will be swept away and lost forever.

The game is being created in partnership with three-man developer Secret Lunch Games, who — according to Beardsmore — originally came up with the idea.

"In order to make the game a reality and bring it to Playstation platforms, we decided to go into development partnership together," Beardsmore wrote. "In building the concept, we really liked the idea of a colorful world juxtaposed with a sinister villain; the idea of saving relics of your past and present, and moving through the remnants of earlier civilizations. In gaming, our inspirations are classics like Klonoa and Abe's Oddysee (to name a few)."

Additional information on the game is expected closer to launch.