Skip to main content

Long read: The beauty and drama of video games and their clouds

"It's a little bit hard to work out without knowing the altitude of that dragon..."

If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Secrets of Raetikon takes to the skies next week

Is it a gravity gun? I bet it's a gravity gun.

And Yet it moves and Chasing Aurora developer Broken Rules is releasing its aerial exploration adventure Secrets of Raetikon on 17th April.

Available on PC, Mac and Linux via Steam, the Mac App Store, and the Humble Store, Secrets of Raetikon will cost £6.99 / $9.99, though it will be 10 per cent off for its launch sale. The Steam version comes with a level-editor to create new mods and content that can then be shared over Steam Workshop.

The main game is a single-player adventure in which you play as one of the bird people tasked with exploring the ruins of an ancient civilization. The culture portrayed in the game is loosely based on the actual Raetic people, who occupied the Alps before the Roman Empire conquered the land. The jerks.

Throughout the game you'll encounter giant animal kings, mysterious contraptions, open-ended puzzles with multiple solutions, and an emergent ecosystem that reacts to your actions.

"We wanted to create a game with high replay value and thus the AI and physics are the pillars the gameplay rests upon," Broken rules explained. "Every animal has a distinct behaviour and all of them react to each other. Every bush can be uprooted and every branch torn out. The game is a story-based sandbox in an open world. And there is in fact a hidden gravity gun." We hope that's not the titular secret.

Check out its triangular animal rulers and more in the Secrets of Raetikon launch trailer below.

The game used to be spelled Secrets of Rætikon, but Broken Rules decided to buck the harder to type Roman tradition.Watch on YouTube