The Puppet of Tersa Demo

Although video games have evolved a lot in the last few decades, some genres remained pretty much the same, mainly because their old-school mechanics are what defines them. Point & click games are about as simple nowadays as they ever were, and it’s not difficult to understand why. Hence, the system works great if there’s a good story running in the background, and especially if the puzzles feel worthwhile.

The Puppet of Tersa is a hand-drawn point & click adventure game that puts you in the role of a little girl named Cynthia. Together with her you get to travel to the land of Tersa, where dark and weird creatures live and from where you must help Cynthia escape. The game features classic gameplay mechanics, which means that most of your time is spent investigating the environment for clues and useful objects.

The demo at hand features only the opening scene of the game, in which Cynthia hears a voice in the middle of the night asking for her help. As it turns out, the voice is coming from under her bed, and after she manages to move the furniture around a bit she discovers that the voice comes from a scary creature that drags her through a dark portal into the world of Tersa.

As mentioned before, there are not many new ideas in the gameplay department, but the developers have really worked on the atmosphere. Hence, Cynthia’s childlike innocence is in direct contrast with the evil world she explores, but there are silly situations in there as well. The writing is spot on when it comes to really making you believe that Cynthia does not grasp the full picture most of the time.

The graphics are great as well, especially since the environments and the characters are drawn by hand. They are not as detailed as you might expect from a modern game, but the sketchy artwork helps a lot with the atmosphere as it’s definitely in tune with the mindset of the main character. Thus, we can only hope that Tersa itself is going to be just as enjoyable when the full version rolls out.

The Puppet of Tersa is on the right path in terms of story, graphics and puzzles, but it still needs more work to be finished. In fact, the developers need your help to move things along, and you can show your support by participating in their Kickstarter campaign.