A stealth game where everything burns?

That’s quite a curious tagline and one I’ve been inclined to investigate ever since I stumbled upon Wildfire early this month. It turns out that there’s certainly an underlying fascination with fire, yes, but no, things don’t always have to burn anymore.

Not since Wildfire hit all its Stretch Goals anyway; now though it seems that you’re also permitted to play with like water, foliage, cats and…chickens?

Hello my name is Dan I'm making a game where you can control fire but also for some reason throw oranges at seagulls #pixelart #gamedev #gamemaker #indiegames pic.twitter.com/fmFql2iNCs

— Dan Hindes (@dhindes) May 14, 2018

Dan states that the reason you’ll want to be doing all the above, and more, is the Arch Duchess. She’s not terribly fascinated by your no-longer-latent ability to fool with flames, thinks you’re a witch, and has her entire army combing earth, wind and fire to put an end to your nonsense.

As the trailer demonstrates, mastery of the elements is one’s only solace; Wildfire is predominantly stealth-based, meaning the key to progress lies in devising ingenuine attempts at slipping past enemy designs by say – burning up fields to chase away bobcats, trapping them in bubbles, or conjuring vines to reach the unreachable.

But the enemies aren’t complete buffoons either, often seen working in unison, responding to the tiniest sounding farts and engaging in a bout of tennis mid-duty.

I, too, would freak out if my comrade suddenly became encased in a block of ice @WildfireGame #screenshotsaturday #pixelart #indiegames #gamemaker #indiedev pic.twitter.com/YFlohzoo5f

— Dan Hindes (@dhindes) November 12, 2017

Day/night phases, the incessant ability to run/jump/crawl/slide/hide across a puzzle-ridden environment, objectives of varying complexity and constantly evolving powers makes for a ton of ingenuity as you’d imagine.

If not, Wildfire lets you fine-tune its difficulty to your liking or even bring a friend along for some co-op. All in all an experience that should vary anywhere between five minutes per puzzle if you’re part of the development team, to an enjoyable half-an-hour per if you’re an unassuming play tester, says Dan. Six-eight hours in total, at least.

I believe Wildfire has been in Alpha testing ever since 2016 and is finally looking towards launch across Steam this year. There you may wishlist.