Indie studio Dim Bulb Games gave an early look at its debut effort at The Game Awards this week, offering a brief glimpse at what players can expect from its psychedelic exploration game titled Where the Water Tastes Like Wine.
Where the Water Tastes Like Wine is the first project from the San Francisco-based Dim Bulb Games, an independent studio founded by industry veteran Johnnemann Nordhagen. Nordhagen previously worked on the popular BioShock 2 expansion Minerva’s Den, and assisted The Fullbright Company in creating Gone Home.
Both Minerva’s Den and Gone Home won acclaim for their strong narrative elements and environmental storytelling, and Where the Water Tastes Like Wine will likely follow suit.
Footage from Where the Water Tastes Like Wine showcases an American desert setting, and focuses on a drifter who travels by train to a desolate patch of land marked by a campfire. There, the drifter encounters a mysterious man, who suddenly transforms into a gigantic bird creature.
Developer Dim Bulb Games previously described Where the Water Tastes Like Wine as “a game about traveling, exploration, and telling stories, set in a dreamlike and fantastical American landscape.” Gameplay revolves around exploring surreal environments and talking with fellow travelers in order to flesh out the game’s story.
Citing inspiration from folk music and works of literature like John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath and Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, Where the Water Tastes Like Wine explores a formative period of American history.
“There are many stories of other American wanderers that rarely get told – the spread of African Americans from the south, the movement of migratory farm workers, or the forced marches of native people,” Nordhagen explained. “Where the Water Tastes Like Wine wants to capture the feeling of those songs, poems, stories, and wanderings in a game.”
A release date for Where the Water Tastes Like Wine is not yet known.
