Well, isn’t that a nice surprise? Arguably the highlight of Devolver’s Countdown To Marketing stream tonight, The Plucky Squire is the next game from the creator of Swords Of Ditto – and it looks an absolute peach. See what I mean in the trailer below.

Made by Jonathan Biddle of Ditto fame and former Game Freak artist James Turner (who worked on Pokemon Sword and Shield) who banded together to form new studio All Possible Futures, The Plucky Squire is a gorgeous blend of shading 2D cellular and stunning 3D. game room environments. In fact, I think it could be every game in one, going by this trailer. There’s sword fighting, Punch-Out!! boxing, top-down adventure, side-scrolling sh’umping… Everything, I tell you, everything!

Honestly, I didn’t see this 2D-3D twist coming at all. What starts out looking like a cute Zelda-like 2D setting in a children’s storybook suddenly turns into a Toy Story-esque adventure where your little squire will climb into this kid’s tiny room. It looks like he’ll also be able to jump into all sorts of other objects around the room, including a cup and what appears to be a large plastic jar of chocolates. Or maybe it’s the global version of Lego. Something circular and conducive to side-scrolling shoot ’em ups anyway.

Jot will also be joined by a handful of friends on his journey. We don’t see them in the trailer, but the artwork suggests we’ll have a wizard with a brush (someone will have Chicory on the phone) and a goblin pal who appears to be wielding a pair of wands. Whether it will also support local or online co-op like Swords Of Ditto does remains to be seen.

Alas, The Plucky Squire must not release the Steam until 2023, but in the meantime, why not stick it on your wishlist, huh?

E3 2022 isn’t in full swing – find out all about it in our E3 2022 hub, along with our full roundup of everything announced at Summer Game Fest 2022. Plenty of other great game showcases and streams are yet to come this summer, so make sure to stay up to date with our summer games broadcast schedule.