Wolfire is hard at work on the sequel to Lugaru, titled Overgrowth. They were nice enough to provide me with access to their weekly alphas of the game to see how it is progressing. The game is still very early. In fact, there’s no real gameplay in there to talk about…yet. Wolfire has stated that Overgrowth will take place a few years after Lugaru, use a similar combat system, and once again feature Turner the rabbit as the main character. Turner will be battling wolves, cats, rats, and dogs (at the very least) but Turner isn’t even in the game yet. In fact a few weeks ago, there was only ‘Rabbot’. Rabbot was a sort of rabbit stick figure placeholder. Rabbot was just recently replaced with a real rabbit named Robbert. Wolfire isn’t saying much more about the story, but they do have a fantastic comic that may shed some more light on the world and story potential.

Check it out at: http://www.wolfire.com/comic

Right now, Overgrowth features some amazing tools to play around and experiment with. If you’re looking to kick some wolf butt and just enjoy a game, Overgrowth is not yet ready for you….try Lugaru instead. If you’re a Modder, game developer or technically savvy, Overgrowth’s game tools will be easy enough for you to pick up and enjoy. Even if you’re not that tech savvy, there’s still some fun that can be had in the Overgrowth alphas. You’ll just need a little patience. If you need help, the Overgrowth forums and blog have tons of great resources and videos to help people get the most out of their game tools and engine. Personally, I had the most fun throwing bunnies and seeing the game’s ragdoll physics engine in action.

I’m pretty confident saying that Overgrowth will be a beautiful atmospheric game. The environments already look fantastic. The Wolfire team is spending a lot of time on every texture, lighting effect and minute detail and the orchestral and ambient music is already atmospheric and impressive. Wolfire breeds confidence in its game with its already impressive tools and their ongoing updates on their blog. I can’t wait for more combat and game scenarios to leak into the alphas.

So is Overgrowth going to be any good? It’s hard to say at this point, but Wolfire’s dedication is inspiring and the improvements over Lugaru are already apparent in the game’s engine. Overgrowth is certainly worth getting excited about.

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