Spindle

Autumn time is gaming time and since I recently finished a handful of projects, I decided to treat myself to action-adventure Spindle. Developed by German indie studio Wobble Ghost—which is Tom Bleek of Let’s GameDev, Kim Jannik Seitner, and Felix Jörns—and published by Deck 13 Spotlight, this Zelda-like was released on 2025-10-13. Today I finished it after 14:10:38 hours on a Nintendo Switch Lite, that I bought used specifically for this title. Full disclosure: I have been following Tom and the development of this game for years, so I might be biased; but for me, this game is perfection!

I play Dengel, who is no other than Death himself, and his trusty sidekick Pig, a … well, a pig. My companion is a pig. Together we roam a fictional world where unsettling things are happening: people who have been pillars of society show strange behavior, the dead refuse to die, and nightmarish glitches are hinting at a sinister scheme behind all this.

Cozy places like this Alpaca farm hide the fact that I will have to do a lot of fighting and puzzling before the end credits roll.

The first thing I realized about this game is that it is absolutely gorgeous! The pixel art is superb, the animations are buttery smooth, and the attention to detail—Pig jumps on my head when climbing a ladder—is impressive. I sometimes struggle with the readability of pixel art games, i.e. it is hard to decipher for me, what is background, what is foreground, and what are significant areas of interaction. That is not the case with Spindle, which is beautiful and pleasant to navigate. This is just the game for Nintendo’s Switch Lite.

Judging by cover, Spindle is a homage to 2D-Zelda titles—like A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening—in the best sense: dungeons, small keys, new abilities, charming NPCs, challenging bosses—it’s all there. But I am also getting hints of To the Moon and Hyper Light Drifter, that help raising the story of Spindle above a typical 2D-Zelda entry and turn it into an endearing commentary on loss and coping.

On top of that, I get trading sequences, fishing, hidden treasures, and an overall game progression that quenches my thirst for experimentation and exploration.

What is going on here?

It amazes me, how much content the developers put into this game. At the same time, trying to 100% it does not feel like a chore. It was fun and satisfying to collect all the Death Coins, do the trading sequences, and find all the museum treasures. I only missed out on some of the fish to catch, which I will rectify in my soon-to-be-expected replay.

I played Spindle on normal difficulty; puzzles are appealing and never frustrating, combat is satisfying and never gets in the way, and bosses are a welcome and doable challenge.

Spindle has a lot more to offer than I expected.

If you understand German and are into game development with Godot, I want to recommend Tom’s Youtube-Playlist Spielsklave (game slave) where he lets the community decide what game to code. The game they come up with is now known as Spindle! Spielsklave later turned into a more conventional devlog format, but Tom stays true to himself by always blending knowledge transfer with his unique sense of humor. His channel is one of my personal cozy corners on the internet.

The obligatory end title screen. I can totally see Spindle becoming one of my revisit-over-Christmas games.

★★★★★

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