Proteus
Release date: Jan 30, 2013
Developers: Ed Key and David Kanaga
Publishers: Twisted Tree
Genres: Adventure, Casual, Indie
Categories: Single-player, Full controller support, Family Sharing
Supported languages: English

Steam Big Picture Mode About the Game Proteus is a game about exploration and immersion in a dream-like island world where the soundtrack to your play is created by your surroundings. Played in first-person, the primary means of interaction is simply your presence in the world and how you observe it. The procedurally generated islands are home to creatures natural and imagined, tranquil valleys and ruins with magical properties. Key Features: Meditative play: the responsive world and lack of any text or hints distils an essence of curious, investigative play, and rewards patience and immersion. Dynamic soundtrack composed by award-winning musician David Kanaga follows the mood of the world and will appeal to fans of Boards of Canada, Brian Eno. A distinctive 2D-but-3D graphical style with wild shifting palettes that sits somewhere between 8-bit videogames and early 20th century modernist painting. Islands are uniquely generated every time, and although it's theoretically possible to see everything in one playthrough, no-one ever does. Built-in 'postcard' function encodes world data into each screenshot, allowing islands and discoveries to be saved and shared. 

Press reviews: “In a way, its lack of progression – the absence of skill trees, difficulty levels and save points – works in its favour; you won’t dive back in to mop up the last few achievements, or to climb leaderboards, but simply because you want to play Proteus. Because you want to open your eyes and be up to your waist in seawater, to walk to shore and wander through fields that sing. And that’s an itch only Proteus can scratch.” 8/10 – Edge “I come away from it feeling elated. And that makes Proteus feel very special to me. It’s such a pleasure knowing it will be the same for so many others.” – Rock Paper Shotgun “Its randomness and secrets make it worth playing through a few times, and beyond that, it's easy to imagine wanting to return to it just for respite from a stressful day or a noisy city.” 8/10 – The Guardian “Proteus is beautiful, a beautiful thing. […]If it must be catgorised, Proteus perhaps is best filed alongside last year's similarly oblique but fascinating experimental games – Dear Esther and Journey.” 5/5 – Eurogamer