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

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Roguelite Noita's simulated pixel system suggests a promising Spelunky successor

By the creators of The Swapper and Crayon Physics Deluxe.

Noita looks like Spelunky if Spelunky simulated each and every individual pixel in its dynamic, procedurally-generated universe.

The brainchild of Olli Harjola (The Swapper), Petri Purho (Crayon Physics Deluxe), and Arvi "Hempuli" Teikari (Environmental Station Alpha) at their new studio Nolla Games, Noita offers insanely interactive environments where every pixel is susceptible to both physics and the elements. As such, every individual speck of scenery can be burnt, melted, chipped away, or collapsed.

These sorts of things will happen a lot in Noita, as players are put in the role of a sorcerer, so you'll do plenty of customising spells and casting them, which promises to affect the scenery in ways both sensible and surprising.

Noita means 'witch' in Finnish, as Nolla Games is based in Helsinki.Watch on YouTube

From the trailer alone we see our sorcerer cooling lava, shattering vats of acid, igniting gaseous caverns, breaking bridges of ice, shooting down hazardous wheels, and melting barriers of snow.

The developer has a nice pedigree, too, as we highly recommended Harjola's puzzle platformer The Swapper, and found Crayon Physics Deluxe to be pretty good too.

Noita will be coming to PC "when it's done", Nolla noted.