Winnie the Pooh's Hole stars in a new game from Ring of Pain dev

PC

Image: Twice Different

Simon Boxer and his studio Twice Different, best known for the excellent roguelite dungeon crawler Ring of Pain, have announced their sophomore game. It's called Winnie's Hole, and it's themed around the premise of a horrific, ever-mutating Winnie The Pooh. Yes, that Winnie the Pooh.

The game itself is described as an ‘accessible turn-based roguelite with auto-battling elements.’ Player will embody a virus within Winnie the Pooh's body, and focus on exploring Pooh's innards, capturing cells, and informing just what kind of monstrosity Pooh will transform into.

The action will be visible from two perspectives simultaneously. One portion will show you what's happening with the virus inside Pooh's body, as you navigate a procedurally generated body by placing Tetrominos, which carve away paths and collect resources.

The other perspective will depict what's happening in the outside world as Pooh changes and interacts with his friends, and by ‘interact’ we probably mean ‘devour’ Twice Different says the design goals of the game were focused on exploration and discovery.

Given some of the monstrosities seen in Ring of Pain, Winnie's Hole seems like a natural next step for the developer, as bizarre as that sounds. The trailer also features rhyming narration, another carry-over trait from Ring of Pain, which suits the messed-up children's book theming.

Read: Simon Boxer's personal Ring of Pain: The long road to games success

For those unaware, though Winnie the Pooh is well-known from the original A.A. Milne books and the Disney animated properties, the US copyright that protected the character expired in 2021, allowing Pooh to enter the public domain. Disney seemingly still has the rights to the bear in the UK, however.

Winnie's Hole will release in Early Access sometime in 2023. It will also feature playable characters other than Pooh. You can wishlist it on Steam now.

Edmond is the managing editor of GamesHub. He was previously at GameSpot for 13 years, where he was the Australian Editor and an award-winning video producer. You can follow him @EdmondTran

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