At the Future Games Show during Gamescom, the small studio Hurdy-Gurdy Games unveiled a project that no one will soon forget: a shooter set entirely within the nightmarish painted worlds of the medieval painter Hieronymus Bosch.
What is Hieronymus About?
In Hieronymus, you play as Helena van Aken, who seeks to uncover the truth behind her family's mysterious pact with supernatural powers. By her side: none other than Faust himself. The game world directly draws inspiration from famous works by Hieronymus Bosch, most notably the triptych “The Garden of Earthly Delights” – one of the most renowned and enigmatic paintings in European art history, which has captivated art historians for over 500 years. The fact that this particular surreal imagery now serves as a 3D shooter backdrop is exceptionally rare in gaming – typically, classical art history serves at most as a rough stylistic template, not a direct game world.
How Do You Fight Your Way Through Bosch's Paintings?
According to the announcement, you'll be able to encounter the numerous twisted creatures that populate Bosch's paintings in three ways: through direct combat, alchemy, or by capturing and taming them. In the material shown, you'll face, among other things, a multi-legged “fish train” – a remarkably fitting image for how literally the studio interprets the surreal source material.
The game does not yet have a publisher, and a release date has also not been set – a Steam release is currently planned. For fans of unusual indie concepts, Hieronymus should already be one of the names to keep an eye on in the coming months.
Precisely because there isn't a major publisher on board yet, it remains to be seen how much of the showcased material will actually make it into the final game – with small studios lacking financially strong partners, ambitions and scope between announcement and release often shift more frequently than with large AAA productions, based on experience. However, anyone who adds the Steam page to their wishlist will at least automatically be notified as soon as there are new details or a date.
Source: PC Gamer
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