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Marine survival game Loddlenaut invites you to try a demo ahead of its November release

A new school of naut.

Image credit: Moon Lagoon / Secret Mode

To celebrate 2023's World Cleanup Day, publisher Secret Mode has confirmed that indie Loddlenaut – a game all about clearing up the pollution left behind by evil megacorps – will release on 16th November 2023.

The "creature-raising survival game" lets you explore an open-world, alien planet, raise your own loddles, clear up debris with your bubble gun, recycle trash to create upgrades and more helpful items, and unlock new gadgets to ensure you can clear up even the most stubborn ocean pollution.

Loddlenaut - Release Date RevealWatch on YouTube

Not sure if this kind of "cosy pollution-cleaning adventure awash with creature-raising and survival systems" is for you? To help you make up your mind, a demo is now available on Steam for PC and – wait for it – Mac players to give it a go.

Loddlenaut started out as a NYU Game Center thesis project in 2019, and has been in active development for a commercial release by Moon Lagoon since 2020.

The game casts you as an "interstellar custodian" sent to a polluted ocean planet where you'll need to recycle trash and build and upgrade purification tools to clear up the mess. The more you try to restore the ocean, the more the Loddle creatures will trust you, until you'll be "surrounded with new best friends to name, feed, pet, communicate with, and even evolve".

As part of its committed to cleaning up our oceans, publisher Secret Mode and charity Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) teamed up with gaming charity SpecialEffect at Develop:Brighton in July to clean Brighton's beaches. More than 40 members of the games industry collected over 1500 items of litter, including 203 loose pieces of plastic.

World Cleanup Day is an annual global social action program aimed at combating the global mismanaged waste crisis, including the problem of marine debris. Yesterday's World Cleanup Day featured 71 million volunteers working across 197 countries and territories and together, they removed 325K tonnes of waste from our shores.

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