Noita's granular physics look delightfully dangerous

Oh man, how did I miss Noita? It looks like someone took that Powder Game everyone was well into back in school, gave it a colour palette and made a Spelunky out of it. Brilliant! There’s so much physical goodness going on, I’d love it if one of the developers, say, released a 10-and-a-bit minute YouTube video explaining how Noita’s meticulously simulated materials come together to create chaos.

Wait, they did what?

It only takes a few seconds for developer Petri Purho’s showcase tour of Noita to come crumbling down around him.

Killing things with straight-up damage is frowned upon in Noita, it seems. One group of nasties finds themselves frozen stiff when the gas from a frozen pool bursts upwards. Another gang is roasted alive, as Purha avoids setting himself alight to turn a cave chamber into a cooker. All the while, shards fly across the screen and rocks tumble across the screen. Great stuff, that.

It’s not all death and destruction, either. At one point Purho uses an invisibility charm to sneak (snook) past some winged baddies. Water, oils and blood can stick to you and can affect things like how easily you catch fire or slide through the environment – but they can also mess up any meddling transparency you’ve got going.

Sadly, Purha doesn’t get caught. Fortunately, he promptly bursts into flames, collapsing an ice bridge below and shattering frozen stalactites.

Alice Bee had a nice long chat with the developers over at Nolla back in May, diving deep into Noita’s Falling Everything engine. It’s one thing to hear about the physical nonsense of Noita’s interactions, but it’s quite another to see it for yourself.

This is still a game, mind, and Purha takes time to show off some of the procgen wizard sticks scattered around the world. It all seems nice enough, but all Noita really need is more excuses to break everything in sight.

Noita is aiming to hit Steam through Early Access on September 24th. Nolla are also gunning for an Itch and Humble Store release around that time.