Lake Ridden will offer tough puzzles and exploration next month

This new trailer for lovely narrative game Lake Ridden brings us up to date with a project I’ve been watching for a few years, and which is out next month.

Most recently, I played the game at the Game Developers Conference last month, and was surprised at how much it’s changed since my last demo. Originally, the game felt more like a straight-up narrative adventure, mainly concerned with wandering around, looking at stuff and solving straightforward puzzles. But it’s gotten a lot more ambitious.

Exploration is still a big part of the game. It follows the story of a girl in search of her lost sister. This takes her from wood to meadow to creepy houses, allowing for some lavish environmental art. But now, the puzzles are more numerous, and more difficult.

The trailer offers a sense of the puzzle style, with a lot of logic problems as well as pattern-finding. When I played, I spent some time in the loft of a house, fiddling with gadgets, searching for missing things, and trying to pull the whole thing together.

There’s definitely a whiff of Myst about this game, in which players are expected to think slightly outside the norms of basic puzzledom. I think it will appeal to players who love to explore and to be tested by visual problems.

Lake Ridden is being developed by Swedish outfit Midnight Hub. It’s out for Windows PC on May 10, with a price tag of $19.99.