The Plucky Squire: Everything We Know

What happens when you take the best pages from a series of 2D and 3D realities and merge them into a singular universe? Why, you get The Plucky Squire, of course — an upcoming action-adventure game that not only boasts a magical storybook world, but a series of “delightful and surprising mini-challenges,” too. In the words of its creators, All Possible Futures, the game will look to deliver a “charming” action-adventure experience — one that will allow players to alternate between two completely different dimensions.

The Plucky Squire isn’t due out for a good while yet, but if you happen to be keen on learning all there is to know about it, then be sure to read on. Here’s everything we can currently tell you about All Possible Futures’ parallel universe.

What Is The Plucky Squire?

From what we’ve gathered so far, The Plucky Squire will be something of a crossbreed—a 2D and 3D action-adventure game in which players will move between alternate worlds, both on the page in a storybook-like setting, and in the outside world, in which an entirely new plot will unravel.

“The very first thing we said was, ‘Can we do this? Is this even possible?'” All Possible Futures’ co-founder Jonathan Biddle told Edge Magazine. “And I'll hold my hand up and say I'm actually not a very good programmer. But I'm really stubborn. If someone says something can't be done, I just kind of get on and do it. They're full Unreal levels; they're just tiny, and they have sprites on them instead of 3D.”

“On top of that, you need to coordinate where you are in 3D space with where you are in 2D space — there's a conversion going on every time you do that, and you just have to perfectly line up each one,” Biddle explained. “You jump into this world, and that character gets destroyed, and then you spawn a different character up here in the corresponding location, and you carry on from there.”

Story

As far as the game’s storyline goes, it seems the bulk of the narrative will center around a hero named Jot—a character torn from the pages of his own storybook. In a desperate attempt to rewrite the ending, “malevolent” villain Humgrump has removed the heroes from the scene, and has taken it upon himself to chalk up his own fate. Sure enough, this is where you’ll begin your quest: on the outside looking in, and in search of a method of writing yourself back into the story to iron out the creases.

“The Plucky Squire follows the magical adventures of Jot and his friends – storybook characters who discover a three-dimensional world outside the pages of their book,” the blurb reads in part. “When the malevolent Humgrump realises he's the villain of the book – destined to lose his battle against the forces of good for all eternity – he kicks the heroic Jot out of its pages and changes the story forever.”

According to the devs, “Jot must face challenges unlike anything he's ever seen if he is to save his friends from Humgrump's dark forces and restore the book's happy ending.” Naturally, this will mean having to venture deep into two realities, both of which will feature their own sets of challenges and original characters, to list just a couple of things.

Gameplay

Aside from the fact that the game will have players traversing a mixture of 2D and 3D environments, the developer also claims that they’ll be “solving puzzles, boxing badgers, flying with a jetpack, and enjoying many more delightful and surprising mini challenges as you become the hero of a living storybook.” Sounds all rather exciting, for sure, and we can’t wait to see what comes of it when it touches down on consoles and PC.

Development

There’s a common misconception that Volvy mostly starred in past Devolver Digital hits but then how do you explain his role in the upcoming The Plucky Squire? pic.twitter.com/GnrWABQApG

— Devolver Digital (@devolverdigital) June 6, 2023

Publisher Devolver Digital and All Possible Futures first announced The Plucky Squire back in 2021, at which point the developer mentioned that the game would be shaping up for a rough 2023 launch. Due to a series of issues, however, this eventually went on to become a 2024 launch window.

“Been developing games for 22 years (not always as a coder), but this is my first Unreal project,” All Possible Futures’ creator wrote in a Reddit post. “Started learning both Unreal and C++ three years ago, and started The Plucky Squire in 2020.”

“I love using Unreal – you can tell it's a game making tool made by people who actually use it to make games,” the post continues. “It has made developing this so much more fun.”

At the time of writing, The Plucky Squire doesn’t have a concrete release date. That said, All Possible Futures has made it clear that it’ll be heading to all major platforms as some stage in 2024. So that’s a start.

Trailer

The good news is, there is in fact a trailer of The Plucky Squire — and a pretty insightful one, at that. If you’d like to catch a snippet or two of the upcoming action-adventure game, then be sure to check out the latest teaser trailer embedded above.

Release Date, Platforms & Editions

The Plucky Squire will be launching across Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, Switch, and PC via Steam at some point in 2024. Does this mean the chances of it arriving on older consoles are next to nought? It’s hard to say. Having said that, many independent games have gone on to port their ways over to older hardware, so it’s definitely a possibility.

Interested in staying up to date with The Plucky Squire? If so, then be sure to check in with the folks over at All Possible Futures for all the latest updates here. If anything does change ahead of its launch, then we’ll be sure to fill you in on all the key details right here on gaming.net.

So, what’s your take? Will you be picking up a copy of The Plucky Squire when it arrives on its chosen platforms? Let us know your thoughts over on our socials here.