Animal Well
Developer(s)	Shared Memory
Publisher(s)	Bigmode
Programmer(s)	Billy Basso
Platform(s)	Nintendo Switch PlayStation 5 Windows Xbox Series X/S
Release	Switch, PS5, Windows May 9, 2024 Xbox Series X/S October 17, 2024
Genre(s)	Metroidvania, puzzle
Mode(s)	Single-player

Animal Well is a Metroidvania video game developed by Billy Basso and published by Bigmode. The player controls a blob and explores a labyrinth filled with animals. The game was released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Windows on May 9, 2024, and for Xbox Series X/S on October 17, 2024. It released to critical acclaim.

Animal Well revolves around exploration via nonlinear platforming and puzzle solving.^[1] As in other Metroidvanias, the player collects gear which can be used to pass various obstacles. However, gear items often have many uses, not all of which will be immediately obvious.^[2] The design does not typically engage in hand-holding, but rather encourages out-of-the-box thinking.^[3] The player is not able to fight, unlike similar games.^[4] Basso has stated that the map is "not nearly as big as some games, but it aims to be much denser."^[5]

Animal Well is mechanically organised into four "layers", each of which offer additional complexity. They were designed to cater to different types of players, ranging from casual to more inquisitive. The layers must largely be completed sequentially, though the first layer alone is designed to be an enjoyable conclusion to the game.^[6] They are:

1. A straightforward playthrough of the main areas, collection of the four flames and completion of the main objective to reach the credits screen. The first layer is intended for all players.^[6]
2. Further puzzles to gain secret gear items, reaching hidden areas and exploring the majority of the map. The second layer ends with a second credits screen. Intended for "discovery and secret-oriented players", only the second layer is necessary to reach 100% achievements or trophies.^[6]
3. Additional challenges which introduce alternate reality game (ARG) elements; one puzzle in particular required at least fifty players to collaborate to solve it, as each player of the game was only given a partial solution.^[7] This culminates in a new secret area. It was intended for the wider community to solve collaboratively.^[6]
4. A puzzle involving items only unlockable through repeat playthrough challenges, such as speedrunning, which are maintained across save files. These collectively offer clues which lead to a final ending.^[8] The final puzzles were intended to take potentially 10 years to solve;^[9] in practice they were solved by the community in the first month after release.^[10]

Animal Well was developed by Billy Basso, a professional game programmer from Chicago.^[11] Before working on Animal Well, Basso had worked for other game studios including NetherRealm Studios and Phosphor Games.^[6] Basso began developing the game in 2017 as a hobby project, and shifted to working on it fulltime in 2022.^[6] Basso pulled creative inspiration from survival horror games, "flip screen" Commodore 64 games, Super Mario Bros. 2 and 3, The Witness, Tunic, and Fez.^{[11][6][12][13]}

Basso developed the engine from scratch in C++, wanting to free himself from working in the limitations of third-party engines like Unity and Unreal.^[14] The engine has low latency, allowing for precise platforming.^[15] The gameplay code was written into its own DLL that can be recompiled while the game is running.^[14] Basso used a limited color palette when designing the artwork.^[11] Sprites were drawn and animated using Aseprite, and some animations are procedurally generated by the game.^[14] Basso felt the procedurally generated animation helped the game appear unsettling, and helped set the game apart from the traditional sprite stretching and screen shaking effects used in other indie games.^[14] To give the game a sense of depth, the graphics engine makes heavy use of particle systems, fluid simulations for smoke and water, normal mapping, and dynamic lighting, all rendered in different layers.^[14][15] The game runs at an internal resolution of 320×180.^[14]

Basso constructed the game's architecture to frustrate data mining efforts, and prevent the game's "deeper layer" puzzles being solved via this method. As it was a novel engine, there were no existing tools to unpack it at launch. Basso deliberately did not leave text or strings in the code, with animation files and other assets identified using numbers alone. The game includes collectable items stored in unreachable areas, that lock the player out of further progression if picked up. It was Basso's goal to make it harder to hack the game than it was to simply figure out the puzzles. His effort was successful, as the game's harder secrets were found via normal methods first, in the first month after launch.^[16][17] Basso believed that some puzzles would take 10 years to solve and so constructed the game to be as widely compatible as possible, in the hope that future computers would still be able to easily run it.^[18] He initially stated that there were only three layers,^[19] but a hidden fourth layer was discovered after the game's release.^[20]

Basso worked with Adleman for marketing. He eventually partnered with Bigmode for publishing, a publishing house run by YouTuber Jason Gastrow (videogamedunkey).^[13] In January 2023, Gastrow announced that Animal Well would be the first game released by Bigmode.^[21] The game was released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Windows on May 9, 2024,^[22] and Xbox Series X and Series S consoles on October 17, 2024.^[23]

Animal Well was praised by critics for the Windows and Nintendo Switch versions based on 31 and seven reviews respectively while receiving "generally favorable" reviews for the PlayStation 5 version based on 14 reviews, according to review aggregator website Metacritic.^[24] 98% of critics recommended the game according to OpenCritic.^[25]

Jamie Moorcroft-Sharp of Destructoid praised the game for its expansive content and multitude of secrets, giving it a perfect score and stating that Animal Well is "packed with more things to do and secrets to find than most other games".^[26] Christian Donlan from Eurogamer lauded the game's immersive exploration, calling it "an astonishingly rich Metroidvania".^[28]

Richard Wakeling from GameSpot highlighted the game's unique take on traditional items, visual design, and neon-soaked world, awarding it a score of 90 and noting that the game "might look antiquated and familiar at first glance, but this well is cavernous and unpredictable".^[30] Shaun Prescott from PC Gamer also gave it a 90, calling it "a sleep-destroying puzzle metroidvania of baffling depth".^[35] Rebekah Valentine from IGN awarded Animal Well a 9/10, describing it as "a beautiful, multi-layered puzzle box that's both fun to simply play around with, and an utter delight to slowly crack open".^[32]

The game was also noted for its extremely small file size compared to many other modern games, with the PC version at around 33 MB. While the PlayStation 5 version is over 100 MB, most of that size can be attributed to a single high resolution image used in the console's UI.^[39]

• Official website