Lil’ Guardsman, due out this year, is a point-and-click fantasy adventure inspired by LucasArts and Papers, Please. Here’s a trailer.
After years in the doldrums, the point-and-click adventure has enjoyed a mini renaissance in more recent years. As well as Telltale Games’ acclaimed output, we’ve had smaller, quirkier offerings from the likes of Amanita or Cloak and Dagger’s eerie The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow.
Later this year, indie studio Hilltop Studio will add to the list with Lil’ Guardsman, a narrative-driven, fantasy point-and-click influenced by the light tone of LucasArts’ classic output. Mechanically, it’ll also draw a little from Papers, Please, with a plot that sees you, as a youth named Will, taking over shifts at your father’s guard shed.
Installed in your new post as castle guardsperson, you’ll screen the array of visitors to the citadel. Should you let a sweet old lady enter the grounds with her baked goods, or should you confiscate them? Can you tell who’s an innocent citizen going about their business and who’s a foul interloper?
“Consequences can be severe in this narrative-driven experience,” the developer writes, “and clever use of your abilities can help you uncover mass conspiracies and protect your castle and family from devious interlopers.”
As you can see from the trailer above, it all looks thoroughly charming, with around 100 unique characters to interact with and generally scrutinise, and a range of options available as you go about your daily tasks. You even get the choice as to whether you should put a horse in prison or not. Game of the Year status surely beckons.
Hilltop Studio cite Monkey Island as one of its reference points for their project’s humour, and Lil’ Guardsman certainly takes a fun, irreverent approach to its fantasy world. Where else will you find foul-mouthed, one-eyed ogres rubbing shoulders with little guys with their hair on fire
Lil’ Guardsman is due for release on PC, Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation in the second quarter of 2023.
