Judero is a fantastical adventure crossing from round Peebles in Scotland’s Borders all the way over to the west coast, starring a strapping Celt named Judero (who may or may not be built upon an old action figure). Something foul is afoot, and off he’ll go exploring, chatting with folks, and getting into fights. It’s a bit like a top-down beat ’em up with very lively bosses, though puzzling and combat-puzzling come in with Judero’s ability to mind-control enemies. Apparently the full game will shift between all sorts of minigames, which does make me think a little of Nier: Automata. To make Judero, Jack King-Spooner has teamed up with Talha Kaya, who made survival game Soul Searching and designed and programmed side-scrolling hack ’n’ slash Pill Baby. I like that I don’t fully understand what’s going on with Judero after playing the demo, its blend of past and present, handcrafted and handpainted, fantastic and mundane, gentle folk and unexpectedly intense boss battles. I’d look forward to seeing more in the full game. I’m excited to learn more about Borders folkore too. I’ve visited some towns in the Borders, swam in some rivers, climbed some hills, cycled through valleys glowing with heather, and hiked to ruins, but I don’t know many stories. You can download Judero’s demo from Itch.io. They plan to launch the full game on Steam too, in 2024, as well as Nintendo Switch. To help fund development, they launched a Kickstarter campaign yesterday, which is already 45% of the way to their £12,000 goal.
