Story-driven cinematic platformer · RPG elements · PC
Four heroes. Four ancient art styles. Explore, fight, sneak and solve your way through playable worlds inspired by cave paintings, Egyptian papyrus, Greek pottery and Roman mosaic.
A game inside the history of art
ArtFormer: Ancient Stories is a story-driven cinematic platformer with RPG elements. Instead of placing a modern character in front of historical scenery, each chapter builds its characters, shapes, colours and spaces from a different surviving visual tradition.
The game follows the legacy of cinematic platformers while changing mechanics from chapter to chapter. Combat, stealth, exploration, conversations, quests, inventory systems, puzzles and mini-games all live inside its four distinct historical worlds.
Four chapters · four heroes · four visual languages
Each chapter tells a separate story with its own hero, gameplay and visual identity, drawing on real historical art forms.
Chapter I · Prehistory
Play as a young boy approaching initiation into manhood. Hunt, fight, travel through caves and face dangers in a world inspired by prehistoric cave paintings from Africa, Australia and Europe.
Chapter II · Ancient Egypt
Help Pharaoh Ramesses II cross the Nile and continue toward the underworld. The chapter draws on papyrus paintings, tomb frescoes, funerary objects and Egyptian statuary.
Chapter III · Ancient Greece
Follow Odysseus from the Trojan War toward Ithaca. Fight through the burning city, cross the Aegean and face mythological creatures in a world inspired by ancient Greek pottery.
Chapter IV · Ancient Rome
Follow a gladiator in the Roman Republic. Train, choose a combat style, buy equipment and fight for glory while the world around you is assembled from the visual language of Roman mosaics.
More than a visual experiment
The visual concept is the hook, but ArtFormer also packs in quests, dialogue, combat, stealth and progression.
Recognition
ArtFormer appeared in IndieDB’s 2019 Top 100 while still in Early Access and later won the CEEGA Hidden Gem award in 2022.
The Central & Eastern European Game Awards named ArtFormer: Ancient Stories the 2022 winner of the Hidden Gem category.
Official source ↗
During Early Access, ArtFormer was selected for IndieDB’s 2019 Indie of the Year Top 100 in the Platformer category.
Official source ↗Actual gameplay screenshots
Sixteen screenshots from the supplied game materials show the four art styles, exploration, combat, dialogue and RPG systems.
The ancient stories are waiting
Discover the complete four-chapter journey of ArtFormer: Ancient Stories on Steam.