Theo & Lizzy - Interview & Game of the Week

As many of you will know by now I'm a big fan of Indie Games so I was very excited to get my hands on some of the upcoming wonders at EGX this year!

One of my games of the event was Theo & Lizzy by Butcherlab, so I made sure to take the time to get hold of one of the developers so we could talk all about the game.

Interview

The Story

"You play as Theo, Theo lives on the ground. Theo’s girlfriend Lizzy lives on the ceiling, Theo learn’s that he can flip from the floor to the ceiling to be with his girlfriend Lizzy. However, Lizzy's parents don’t approve of this and Lizzy gets very upset about the whole thing and runs away. Theo uses his abilities to run after her.", explains Peter Harries.

Is there a level where Theo catches up with Lizzy? "You’ll have to play it", laughs Peter.

Gameplay

This is a fun, fast-paced game that reminds me a lot of the excitement I had playing Super Meat Boy. It's a none stop runner, meaning if you hit the wall you'll be running straight back. When I initially played this game they have just one speed that make the game super exciting but different for some players, so they developed a slow down / speed up mechanic that worked really well when I got my hands on that build. I have to say it helps to reduce the stressfulness of some majorly hard levels whilst keeping the entertainment at a high.

"At the moment we are finding the gameplay is a tad on the difficult side but you seemed to enjoy it so that’s good. We have toyed with ideas of seeing the level before you run it to stop you having to do a suicide run to get your bearings.", says Peter.

Collectibles

Along the way you'll see a lot of Gems, make sure to collect them. They currently don\'t have a use after you complete the story mode but maybe we'll see them allow you to unlock new characters once the game is released.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer was a fun little mode to get you started and proved a great feature which a lot of people sat down to enjoy at EGX. At launch they will "Avoid online multiplayer as it may have latency issues", explains Peter but that doesn't mean it's gone for good. He goes on to say that they really want to focus on"making local multiplayer as good as it can be, so you get that sort of old school party game feel".

"It plays on the crazy franticness we are going for."

Graphics

It's got a rather nice style to it even in the early build that was on display at EGX. Hopefully, they'll keep the style because it really lends itself to this type of game and helps to reduce distractions when you're traveling at high speed. I think what's important to note is because this is still in development and months from release, a lot of the little elements continue to change as they get more feedback, for instance the door (portal like) element.

Launch

So when is this exciting new Indie game going to launch and upon which platforms?

The great news is it'll definitely be on Steam after they recently got greenlit. No word yet on if it'll be released via Early Access at this stage but it's a possibility.

They are currently looking to launch it in February. My guess is around Valentines day as it'd be a nice little indie love story to enjoy with your partner.