“Year Walk” Coming to Wii U

Year Walk, a creepy adventure game soaked in Swedish folklore, is being ported to Wii U as early as this summer or fall.

The official statement from developer “SIMOGO” states:

Grim tales, horrifying creatures and cryptic enigmas await in the dark woods of 19th century Sweden. Lose yourself in an ancient rite which bleeds from the TV screen into our world, through the Wii U™ GamePad. Set out on a vision quest to foresee the future and use the screen in your hands to study a mysterious folklore encyclopedia, decipher hints and take notes. Solve tactile puzzles using motion controls, and listen for clues through the GamePad.

Simogo is a portmanteau of Simon Flesser, Magnus “Gordon” Gardebäck and the Swedish word “och”, which means “and”. Since 2010, Flesser and Gardebäck have been making games, mostly for iOS. Folk Lore itself was released for iOS in 2013 and PC in 2014. It came with a companion app that allowed players to read up on the mythology they encountered and help with puzzle solving.

That is actually one of the new features of the Wii U version, which is being ported with help of Dakko Dakko. There won’t be a companion app. It will be right there in the gamepad, which will also enable motion control and “other fun and surprising things”, according to Simogo. Physically rotating the gamepad will help solve puzzles, and moving it will let players look around the scenes.

Year Walk is based on an old tradition called Årsgång (lit. year walk). It was used as a way to divine the events of the future, usually taken on Christmas Eve. A person would sequester themselves in a room, and not interact with anybody or anything for 24 hours. After that, the individual would blow into the keyhole of their church gate or door, which symbolized the temporary dismissal of their Christianity. In this way, they were able to become closer to the supernatural in order to receive their future visions.

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