Animal Well is a Beautifully Complex Masterpiece

Animal Well, the first game published by Videogamedunkey's Bigmode, is finally here. How is it? Well, in my humble opinion: it is a masterpiece - a secret hunter's dream come true, filled with multiple layers of content...how deep does the rabbit hole go???
Check out Animal Well ► store.steampowered.com/app/81...
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#animalwell #review #indiegame

[@roodypies]

Now we're back at the age were games used to be this big, just a handful of MBs, rather than 60+ GB big. And Animal Well looks wayyyy more attractive than i thought, and for this size??? This game is worth all the hours we're gonna put into it

[@codexed-i]

Back then, games were made in simple engines, not Unity.

[@nifftbatuff676]

I wish. Nowadays even the most basic 2D pixel-art games are made using Unity or Unreal.

[@maxthehuman004]

Modern engines are more accessable for developers, but gigabytes go out of control when smth like genshin is 130 gb and Witcher 3 is ~40 gb with all dlcs

[@nifftbatuff676]

@@maxthehuman004 90 gb in genshin are just ads and malwares.

[@arcbyte1264]

@@maxthehuman004 genshin's current file size is about 70gb total

[@PiercingSight]

"What's up with all this glass?" ...RIGHT!? I've finished the first ending of the game, and it's still frustrating me how CONSPICUOUS it all is!

[@ethansantiago7013]

Right??? Like I thought for sure that I was gonna get an ability to break glass or something

[@isweartofuckinggod]

Hmmmmmmm........... 😅

[@takemetoyonk]

The game made me write an email thanking Billy and anyone who helped. It's easier to do that when the designer is 1 person.

[@sid6645]

Are you kidding me? Those things floating down at 6:20 look like gliders from Jon Conway's game of life! That's crazy if thats how the dev did that effect. If not, then thats just some tasteful inspiration I must say :)

[@AcidArmy_]

It’s not CGOL but it does look similar to it. Doesn’t follow the same rules.

[@iman2801]

Hes out here solving the secrets before we even get to start

[@Holmeren01]

As a massive Fez and Tunic fan this is definetly the game i've been looking forward to the most this year. Thanks for an amazing video Fury

[@j.r7872]

As a karate expert, I hope this game goes on sale so I can try it out!

[@faithrebound8525]

Not only Animal Well is Dunkey-approved, it's also Fury-approved?! Simply impossible!

[@Atmapalazzo]

Dunkey approved? I guess I'll have to skip it then lol.

[@AliVe1234]

@@Atmapalazzo worse than that it's dunkey published

[@Java-il9wn]

​@@AliVe1234why tho ?

[@m.h.lockesteppe9834]

@@Atmapalazzo Baditude.

[@AliVe1234]

@@Java-il9wn jk I like the game

[@helleye311]

Played for about 6 hours now, can definitely recommend! I did get a little stuck at one point, but I've decided "welp, this is a metroidvania, I'm probably supposed to come back later" and went somewhere else. Seems like a good strategy. I'm very scared of some of the rooms I've seen though, I hope it's an item lock not a skill lock :P

[@superslash7254]

I honestly can't tell if it's both sometimes, or the game's just designed in such a way you can brute force things.

[@Kalightortaio]

I'm surprised that no one is bringing up You Have To Win The Game. It's the first game I thought of when I started playing Animal Well. VVVVVV is also another similar game in style.

[@secretmeister]

0:43 and ill stop right there, because that is what me and a friend are

[@secretmeister]

its already so good, I have like an hour and a half and there is already so much... I LOVE IT

[@fritt_wastaken]

1:44-1:56 this alone is enough to convince me to give it a try. It means developer knew what he was doing, such a rare phenomenon in modern game industry.

[@godlyvex5543]

Just wanna brag a bit, I got the basic ending in about 6 and a half hours, getting around 40 eggs. I wasn't even rushing, I spent a good bit of time exploring all the little nooks and crannies I could find. I waited to beat the game until I wasn't sure what else to do. It was completely blind, I watched exactly one trailer when dunkey first announced it and then did not touch any footage until I beat the game.

[@DigitalWolverine]

I’m up to 12 hours and 56 eggs. Got close to beating it but got zapped, so I back tracked and decided to keep exploring.. still finding dozens of secrets. Great game! Little spooky near the end.

[@EonwulfGames]

I had pretty much the exact same experience. I watched the steam trailer after it was recommended to me and had overwhelmingly possitive reviews and bought it immediately. It looked like my kind of game. I imagine that 6 to 10 hour base clear time will be the common experience for people that realize you can jump off a bubble you make onto another you make. I skipped so many puzzles of the game and realized I could do this with the bubble wand pretty much as soon as I got it. It massively helped for exploration and probably led to my low clear time high egg count. Watching his complex disk bubble setup trying to get up to a ledge when you can just bubble up there made me think he didn't figure this tech out forever which is probably why his clear time was 17 hours.

[@godlyvex5543]

@@EonwulfGames Yeah the bubble wand is strong. I thought it was a late game item when I first picked it up, due to how strong infinite airtime is. Either the developer intended for it to be this strong, or something wasn't thought through very well. (Though the item you get later on leads me to believe it's just not well thought out.)

[@sonwig5186]

Yeah I beat it in 5.4 hours, and that was after spending too much time getting stuck doing stupid stuff like trying to climbing the well with bubble or taking the dog ghost across the map. Not that I know what to do now! I'm not so great at meta puzzles...

[@ianjackson9852]

@@godlyvex5543 The item you get later on, for me, was just a massive jump in QOL (Quality of Life). Whenever it's absolutely not intended for a bubble tech, there's vines or the way up is too narrow. So I think it's probably intended?

[@danielundercow]

Thanks so much, Fury, for keeping us posted about this game. I heard about it from you, and now I was reminded of the fact that it was released... still from you. Needless to say that I instantly bought the game. Putting such huge names as Rain World, Noita, and Outer Wilds alongside this one makes me all the more excited. Can't wait to dive in!

[@drantil]

90 hours for a single "complete" playthrough for a seasoned puzzle solver as yourself makes me really scared. I'll give it a go, because it looks and feels fantastic, not much different from when Hollow Knight or Ori were released. That ambience is intriguing and mesmerizing, and it really calls to be played. But, trully, I don't expect to be able to complete it, much as I am not able to complete most of the Noita secrets and bosses u_u'

[@CarnivoreApple]

It is much easier than noita If dunkey can complete it, so can you

[@neztech.]

noita is a much much harder game imo so you'll probably be fine

[@criticalfish]

90 hours is insane and definitely overstated. I found out about the game yesterday, got it and beat it this morning, 73% trophies and a lot of secrets found in 9 hours.

[@gfamhomevideos8062]

@@criticalfish that’s the base game😉 once you 100% the game there’s more to discover

[@criticalfish]

@@gfamhomevideos8062 I have no doubts, in fact I bet the whole map gets a 2nd layer of secrets again but im not there yet

[@potatodadave]

I got interested instantly after seeing the art of the announcement, good to know I wasn't wrong about adding it to my wishlist. I was gonna ask you if you could have a steam curator page but I just checked and saw you created one recently(2023), gave it an instant follow since you generally show me the weird games.

[@sunkruhmhalaci2592]

I would have skipped this game because of Dunkey's fanbase making the same dumb jokes and not actually reviewing the game, but hearing about it from you, I've been convinced to give it a go. Very interesting thus far.

[@godofgrains]

Have you wishlisted Animal Well?

[@humanbloger5533]

Dunkey fans aren't the ones reviewing games I'm pretty sure

[@Spoopy_man]

​@@godofgrainsAre you guys talking about Animal Well? I hear it comes out on May 9th.

[@ar3s003]

The first well type game that is kind of a mixture of halo 2 and halo 3

[@SourSourSour]

I was playing alongside my buddy in a voice chat for layer 2 and 3 of the game, man it was so fun. I'm so proud w/ how far we got without looking anything up, only once we hit the walls on layer 3 did we turn to community and efforts.

[@whismerhillgaming]

it looks magical / eerie and the audio ambiance seems absolutely beautifully crafted, kinda reminds me of Arx Fatalis in a way (for the sound ambiance) and you feeling amazed makes me want to give this game a shot it's just so lovely.... but then there's this whole community puzzle solving thingy, which I'm hugely against, I don't have enough patience for these, and it means having to go through wikis to get to them so yeah meh I dunno...

[@noahriches5566]

Finished the game after 25hr w/ ALL eggs, 8 rabbits and all equipment. 100% achivements with no help and.....just wow....i cant wait to see what you find. This game is insane and i feel like i lost a part of myself "finishing" it

[@artistlovepeace]

Thanks for producing and reviewing. I'm so excited to play and experience this dunkey game.

[@nihilisticinquisition7150]

Just gotten through Layer 1 (e.g. the first credits) blindly after buying the game because I liked its looks (and buying stuff on steam makes the sad go away) and I am pretty amazed - kinda Rain World meets Tunic. Can't wait to head on to the other layers!

[@Camiddle]

I hadn't even heard of the game, so now that it's on my radar I'll be sure to buy it (as per your recommendation)! I'll come back to the video after I beat it so I can go in completely blind

[@MlautheFilthy]

Just bought Animal Well due to your anticipation and review of it. Also picked up ESA for good measure thanks to this video, thus completing my Nolla Game Bundle :)

[@xcreepyunclex9440]

When you talked about secret hunting I immediately thought of Fez. Then looked at your videos and saw you just started on Fury Squared!

[@AzuriumOfficial]

Trusting fury for his uncontainable excitement, I bought and invested myself into the game world blindly. Can safely say there's no spoilers in the video here. I love the pacing, and the fact that the map and stamps are really useful in uncovering layers of secrets. Verdict: Totally worth the purchase.

[@joshnoble07]

outstanding video dude. I am so stoked to find out how much more is hidden in this absolute gem, and also hoping I can stay relatively close behind you so I can follow along 😂

[@tallskeleton]

I too missed the way to get to the bottom right and spent many hours to figure it out when it wasnt that hard

[@android19willpwn]

This sounds like it may sate a hankering I've had since beating Void Stranger. Definitely bumping it to the top of my list.

[@superslash7254]

4:00 and I'm thinking "Okay, so basically he's gone to the same school of game design as Noita's developers."

[@thunderphoenixv2524]

hey fury, i liked the series (or at least the start) of the new alchemist project. are you going to upload these vods or did you decide to scrap the project? i cannot catch you live most of the time but i really enjoy rewatching the streams if i can, please upload this series

[@BRUXXUS]

Yes! It’s time! I cannot wait to jump into this well for myself!

[@WarudoWitch]

rain world mentioned adding this game to wishlist

[@redsnooow1951]

small spoiler - - - - - - - - 11:08, dont know if u figured out yet, but you can easily infinijump with just the bubblewand. Just hit jump and the item button at the same time while moving slightly towards the way you shoot the bubble. Some early game stuff can be skipped pretty easily with it.

[@vashiss]

I found this trick just after getting the wand and have used it basicaly all the time. In many case it felt like cheating but I guess it's just one of the way

[@coltonroyle2341]

Started this last night. Immediately fell in love with it.

[@orenchakon9501]

The falling light particles in 5:45 looks like Conway's game of life. I don't know if it has anything to do with anything but go figure... Maybe there is a riddle related to that

[@inv41id]

There's a surface level similarity but on closer inspection they look nothing like the classic game of life gliders

[@Deaganus]

This game was made by the Noita

[@ohitsaqua146]

This game is so good, it's like halo 2 and 3 combined

[@irithylloldman6526]

Have you wishlisted it tho ?

[@JarvinTheJar]

Why is it only 40 mb though?

[@hetsu_]

​@@JarvinTheJar Why not?

[@JarvinTheJar]

I'm used to playing games larger than 100 gb.

[@JarvinTheJar]

I modded the fuck out of noita too.

[@joechill6327]

Thanks for being careful with spoilers, I've been waiting on this for a long time and can't wait to play later.

[@tsuchiko.]

after seeing your first video on this game, i kept an eye on it when it released yesterday i was playing it nonstop safe to say its fun :)

[@DallasCrane]

8:25 the vine actually hides a secret room lol

[@FuryForged]

hehe

[@Squeaky_Ben]

7:00 god damn are you right about this. I had no idea he could do that and it TERRIFIED me when it happened.

[@mcgibs]

I haven't gotten far yet, but my theory about the setting is that you play as a human soul that has emerged in this purgatory where that soul is at the complete mercy of the natural world that they had so disregarded in life, and their quest to 100% the game is their penance.

[@OurHeroXero]

Re-watching the video after playing the game and understanding all the nods/foreshadowing. IYKYK

[@JKumaD]

Animal Well is definitely a FuryForged coded game.

[@loganmadface5425]

Nothing has made me feel smarter than figuring out the puzzle under the warp room, getting my mind ready for layer 2 (at least I think layer 2)

[@ThierryPeek]

There's a puzzle under the warp room? Do you mean the teleportation code?

[@koy5902]

Oh, I might need to buy this one. It'll be nice to chief a thick blunt and boot this up for some trippy fun.

[@bennettnez4711]

You got some crazy blunts if they Makin you trip

[@DigitalWolverine]

This is a very suspenseful game with some spooky visuals. You might not want to be high when you’re near the end.

[@ripublic1888]

I`m stuck after the second flame, I can`t get the one on the left lower site and the one on the top right.

[@markrolle2527]

whoa, I beat the first "layer" (got to credits) in like 6 hours, and i'm not really good at puzzles. But I wasn't going too far out of my way to search for hidden stuff.

[@reezechepniz7058]

only watched up to the moment where you showed the game is only 30mb. That's insane. Does that mean that there are no real sprites in this game but rather the engine arranging the pixels to these forms or something?

[@lalalandd123]

10:51 speaking of, my dumb ass forgot the frisbee came from the dog statue in the first place, so when i went to take the mock disc i just booked it to the dog door with the ghost following me

[@IRules2244]

I bought this game the day it came out but haven’t played it yet because it came out the day the vampire survivors dlc dropped 💀. I do have one question to ask. Is it obvious when you hit a lower layer of the “onion”? In tunic and fez it was, I’m just wondering if it’ll be obvious or not. Thx for the amazing content! Edit: I also usually play games with music on in the background. I’m going to assume I can’t do that with this game.

[@Lucas-cf5sz]

here from your steam review, this looks very interesting. great video.

[@joshuatealeaves]

I loaded this up because it was added to PS Plus recently. Almost stopped playing in the first hour. 50 hours later….yeah it’s a masterpiece. Hollow Knight, Dark Souls & Celeste had a baby & it’s beautiful. Why is this game so addicting????I’m never taking this off my console.

[@tbahr123]

I do consider myself a “thinky fan” and indeed enjoyed this game very much

[@Raskoril]

My main takeaway from this video is that 'Hadarac Desert' from Eragon is a Dune reference.

[@dougfoster445]

Well, definitely buying this one today!

[@sighmon5640]

did you record any of your first playthrough?

[@Shadi8694]

i finally found all eggs and 8 of something secret but dude there is still so much to find.

[@FuryForged]

There is SO MUCH! It’s insane that the game is only 33mb!?!

[@cory9919]

This game is so stupidly charming it captures my puzzle-dumb ignorant brain and keeps me playing despite the fact that ive never ever been good at puzzle games

[@falcon5x]

8:26 "Nothing is just there for show, not even this vine... Okay maybe that vine" Lmao nice one Fury, I'm pretty sure there is a small passage with a secret chest there. Also is there any sort of secret hunting discord for this game or something? Miiiight just join it after I've played a bunch

[@FuryForged]

Muahahaha, and most of the secret hunting is being done on the official Animal Well Discord

[@elitearbor]

Well, that looks incredible. Instant wishlist item!

[@fw_gamer2777]

Best game I've played unspoiled in a while! thank you so much for hyping me up for it man 😃

[@CreeperCat0407]

I really need to get this game

[@irregularstuff5290]

I think this developmer might be a god of optimization and I already love and appreciate it.

[@handsomeavocado14]

It might be intended, but you can infinitely bubble jump before you get the infinite wand

[@blue_birb]

just finished my first play session, was 3 hours long so far it's great, I have no clue how long the game is but it can't be that long if the game is only 40 megabytes right?

[@gfamhomevideos8062]

3 hours!?!? How many eggs did you get?

[@esper212]

@@gfamhomevideos8062they said play session not playthrough

[@Kolbert21337]

What's the game you're showing at 12:25 before Outer Wilds? I can't undertsand the name (im very good at english)

[@FuryForged]

I showed La-Mulana and then Environmental Station Alpha

[@Disorder2312]

11:20 Yes, this is exactly one of those rooms where i'm stuck in my playthrough. When will there be a guide on what to do in this room?

[@FuryForged]

I'm working on a guide right now. It *might* be finished later tonight, but I'm streaming today. That's the only reason videos aren't flooded out, yet. I've been streaming every day, helping find new things. But I'll have a lot of stuff out on here soon.

[@clutteryguy9747]

My game of the year

[@hanif72muhammad]

OK stop, I'm not gonna finish the video, you tell me a couple of good reason to get the game, so I'm gonna buy it, thanks. Sorry for not finishing your vid

[@potatodadave]

This may sound silly but what I'm doing with some specific game reviews is hearing the audio while ignoring the visuals of the videos. Don't know if it may be useful for you my tip lol.

[@TerryHesticles87]

Just got past Mr. Chameleon. I love how organic the game and puzzles feel. This game is gonna steal my life away and I'm here for it.

[@connormeredith3144]

I WOULD watch this, but you convinced me to play first

[@JeffBorger]

In your Steam review, I saw you mention La Mulana...I've been waiting for that game to go on sale to really dig my teeth into a hard metroidvania type. Would you suggest jump into Animal Well, or first witness the pain that is La Mulana?

[@FuryForged]

Animal Well isn't difficult, but it has very quickly become one of my favorite games ever. It's just a lot of fun to play, like the developer took all of his childhood dreams of what would make a really cool game and then threw them all together: fun and inventive gameplay, really cool movement options with a lot of mechanical depth, super-imaginative secrets and puzzles, etc. And, honestly, I don't really consider most of La-Mulana "difficult" either - it has some challenging bosses, but Hollow Knight is much more difficult than it. The challenge of La-Mulana is in understanding the more obtuse riddles, with hints that could be on the other side of the quite large world. You'll have to take a lot of notes while playing both, and La-Mulana is definitely one of my favorite games of all time also, but as to which you should try first? If you're really craving something difficult: La-Mulana. If you want to maybe get your mind blown numerous times by some very cool things: Animal Well.

[@FuryForged]

Also: have you played Rain World? It is far more difficult than both. It's not technically a metroidvania, but it is a large, explorative platformer that has FAR more depth than most people realize.

[@JeffBorger]

@@FuryForged Thank you so much for your detailed response. I have played Hollow Knight and really enjoyed it. What I was looking forward to the most in La-Mulana was the difficulty of piecing puzzles together, solving riddles, discovering, exploring, etc... Which it sounds like Animal Well also has. Tough decision, but it's hard to pass up your glowing review of AW! Funny that you mentioned Rain World as I was just looking into that today as well!

[@FuryForged]

Whichever you decide on, you should definitely try the other two as well sometime!

[@DangerBay]

great video thanks Fury!

[@CaloxLito]

Ok, let me get some money and I'll get it, I am sold.

[@CygnusiaX1]

I typically don't get that much time to play these days... that being said, when I pick the game up, I have to force myself to put it back down. He's not kidding when the game teaches you stuff that's not readily apparent... such as when the f*** teaches you a trick involving the a***** fl***. When I did the trick myself for the first time, it was truly a "holy crap" moment, and that is surely just the first of many.

[@SgtChrisCross]

Please more videos of it. Its an awesome game!

[@FuryForged]

Many more to come!

[@Dani751PL]

Does it fare better than super mario bros 2? Now THATS the real question

[@garyli3295]

just saw the credits at about 8 hours, now the real game begins...

[@clydeg4274]

This game looks incredible

[@adon155]

11:20 wait i thought i did a skip to get to the end of that room, was i at the start all along

[@sonwig5186]

I'm more of an action-platformer fan than a secret hunter, but I still really enjoyed the game having gotten the first ending at 5 hours. I came into it expecting something similar to Rain World and it is certainly not. I just want to know, is it a good emotional payoff for getting the later endings? I mainly play puzzle games for the story / atmosphere, not just for solving the puzzles. If I know there is something good in store I think I'd enjoy finding out the secrets more. Thanks!

[@nicolabellumat]

Stopped at 0:40. Your previous videos already sold me the game. I have a question though: can one finish the game and find most of the secrets without internet, or some degree of community work is expected? You already mentioned that probably the game will feature some ARG puzzles, but I would like to know if these gate a good chunk of content, or are just for the completionist.

[@kennethmendenhallii1598]

I haven't played it yet, but I watched more of the video than you did. Being as vague as possible to protect your experience, it sounds like there are multiple layers of puzzles, each one taking longer than the previous layer, the first one taking ~17 hours of Fury's playtime to solve. Since he was playing by himself pre-release, it seems like there's a good amount of non-ARG content to explore.

[@user-ik8vy1rg8f]

What is the game "ESA" that you mentioned? It isn't showing up in search.

[@Rhino1004]

Environmental Station Alpha. It's made by the same devs behind Noita!

[@shurikenkat]

Beat Layer 1 on day one. 7 eggs away from completion on day two. Unbelievable game, my face aches from smiling

[@Emblematicify]

Ah great another world that I can get completely lost in. Makes me want to actually finish Rain World but I'm too scared.

[@r1pperuk]

This game is a pure 10/10 up their with the best of them. Hollow Knight Balatro etc for that perfect packaged experience.

[@ThreeFingerG]

I need rebinds devs. Preferably with ingame icons reflecting the change.

[@avEn_12]

the game JUST released now xD

[@cletokings4302]

We are just witnessing a genius mind at work…don’t try to overthink it.

[@cason1029]

Going to buy this rn brb

[@Equinox_Fox]

"What's up with all this glass" What glass? Like, in the game?

[@Emulation_Inflation]

I wonder if this could be put on the miyoo mini plus?

[@ohexenwahno5652]

There

[@ThMrksman]

I look forward to watching this video only after I've finished digging for secrets myself. Thanks for the spoiler warning.

[@coraline2770]

Wish I liked playing these games they just frustrated me till i look up a guide love ur videos tho

[@Ultimite_]

The only question I have about Animal Well so far is "Is this game's puzzles more or less insane than La Mulana's puzzles."

[@Oneiroclast]

Layer 1 and 2, less. Layer 3, more. Layer 4, as far as I know no one has seen layer 4.

[@thomasbane0]

RIP anyone with epilepsy at the intro

[@silvito9867]

Fury you would love Environmental Station Alpha! Try it out

[@FuryForged]

I actually mention it in this video (and show it in my library at the beginning :P) lol. Playing Environmental Station Alpha years ago is what made me start following the development of Noita before Noita came out.

[@GVS2001]

Im back to see the ARG god once again!