Now, I’m not naming any names here, but there’s a certain hand-drawn metroidvania that everyone’s a bit sick of waiting for by this point, and could really do with a release date. OK, fine, yes it’s Hollow Knight: Silksong, and if those recent Steam backend updates mean anything, I expect it’ll get some kind of update sometime in the next few days. In the meantime, here’s Constance, also a hand-drawn metroidvania, that actually does have a release date.
In Constance, you play as a purple-haired painter who is “striving to escape from a colorful but decaying inner-world, created by her declining mental health.” Mental health themes are nothing new in the world of indie games, but that’s not what really sells me on Constance. That’d be the tight-looking platforming and snappy, paint-brush oriented combat.
You literally fight and hop dart around with a massive paintbrush, using it to do pretty much everything, from glooping up the side of a wall, to doing quick brush strokes that let you dodge. Occasionally you’ll even have to do some actual painting, if you can believe it! The thing looks lovely too, I’m a sucker for hand-drawn games, as they always feel like labours of love. Aesthetically that certainly seems to be the case here, so I’m hoping the full release lives up to its look. There’s a demo to available too, so you and I could always give that a go to find out!
Oh, right, release date! That’ll be November 24th, a few months away still, but I’m sure you can wait. As I said, I really wouldn’t be surprised if Silksong does get dated this weekend, but definitely consider keeping Constance on your radar too, I’m sure more than enough people are going to pick up the Hollow Knight sequel. You can wishlist Constance on Steam here.
