Adventure ‘The Last Campfire’ Gets Gameplay Trailer Showcasing First 4 Minutes

A new trailer for Hello Game’s new Adventure game The Last Campfire was shown off in April’s Inside Xbox that gave a first look at gameplay and included commentary from Steven Burgess, the game’s Lead Designer.

The trailer opens up with what seems to be the first few moments of the game, showing the main character Ember awakening, lost in the middle of ancient ruins. Ember seems to be a silent protagonist, so a narrator accompanies him on his journey, giving insight into the plot.

The Last Campfire features a less realistic art style typically found in more family-friendly games. Not long after beginning their journey, however, Ember runs into a skeleton of what seems to be someone from his own race, showing that the game might be a bit darker than it appears.

Burgess backed this up in his commentary, stating, “I think this kind of charming dark fantasy is something that you don’t really see that often in games… this is the first time Ember has seen a skeleton and, despite that, Ember’s first thought is empathy.”

Burgess went on to describe the team’s inspirations for The Last Campfire, stating, “We’ve taken a lot of different inspirations while making the game: illustrated books and movies such as The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth… We really wanted to tell a story that would fit in that style, and, like these stories, there are hints that, as you play, this won’t always be a happy tale.”

As Ember makes their way outside,  the scenery changes from dark ruins to a gloomy forest. Burgess noted that many more artistic moments in the game were all done by one person, Chris Simons, and goes on to praise his work.

The trailer goes on to show Ember doing some simple puzzles to obtain a small fire from a cage. Burgess notes that “Most games with puzzles tend to have a format of a series of increasingly difficult versions of the same puzzle. For Campfire, we were trying to make it so that each puzzle you encounter feels new or has a new twist.”

The trailer comes to an end as Ember finds another one of his kind near a large campfire, with Burgess revealing that, “finding and rekindling hope is one of the games’ biggest themes.”

The Last Campfire was first revealed at the 2019 Game Awards. The game comes from Hello Games, the team behind controversial space exploration game No Man’s Sky.

The Last Campfire will launch on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC in summer 2020.

You can check out the gameplay trailer here: