In the playtest for Wetter, I could make choices which alter the course of my story. It’s a sweet, atmospheric game that is non-violent and story-rich.
The Backstory of Wetter
Some mysterious event happened 15 years ago; it’s known as “The Great Silence”. I played as a cat named Luna, who washed up on the shores of Northgate that day. All I had were questions and my precious amulet. After all those years, I still couldn’t remember my past. I wasn’t alone; thousands of other people also lost consciousness and memories. The 15th anniversary of the event was even reported in the newspaper as I began playing Wetter.
The Look and Feel of Wetter
In Wetter, the town of Northgate is a bright and colorful world with a lot of unique NPCs and interesting shops and buildings. I was able to freely explore the quaint town as I completed my quests. I understand in the full game I will be exploring many islands, but the playtest only took place in Northgate. There I met Barney, who runs a coffee shop; Hemlock, who runs a newstand; Agnes, who is a fellow villager; Finn, who is a sailor; Olaf, who sells fish and plenty of others. There are a number of areas which I could not enter during the playtest; I’m so curious about what’s in those areas.
There’s also a quiet, calm soundtrack in Wetter which I could control using an old school cassette player. I thought that was neat! I had a few musical options in the playtest; there may be more in the full game. The chill soundtracks were a good fit for such a peaceful game. I could even pause the cassette and play without any soundtrack at all. I like games with options.
Wetter is a hand-drawn, 3D open-world game utilizing pixel art. The characters may look a bit familiar. That’s because they are from an asset pack which the developers purchased the commercial rights to use. However, they chose to heavily customize these assets as well as introduce some of their original artwork. While they were pleased to support the indie artists that created the assets, they are also proud of the final characters that were created from that base item.
The Gameplay of Wetter
The game began in my bedroom. I had to put on my precious amulet and then proceed to the kitchen to make my coffee. While the coffee was brewing, I retrieved my newspaper and then read it with my coffee nearby. I could also choose to take a bath, which was an interesting experience! All those activities served as a tutorial of sorts; they helped me become familiar with the actions I could use in the game. After that was done, I had some quests to complete in the town which prompted me to interact with all the NPCs in the game and explore freely. The important items in the game have sparkles on them, which lets me know I should interact with them. I like when games give me visual cues like that.
There was a lecture in the university that evening that I wanted to attend. It concerned Nanites, which are objects that can attach memories to what’s known as memory pearls, which are somewhat similar to USB sticks. Luna thought that was fascinating. As she walked home in the dark after the lecture, she tripped, which caused her precious amulet to fall to the ground and break open. Luna was shocked to find a memory pearl inside it. She raced back to the university to show the professor, and he taught her how to access the memory it contained.
In the next scene, Luna was in a special room with a construct of itself and an explanation of what was to happen next.
Luna next entered a doorway and was transported to yet another place, a vaguely familiar place. The room was full of 4 sparkly memories. I clicked on all 4 and was reminded of some things from Luna’s past. Two of these were a good friend named Sol and the fact that she used to be a botanist. I had to choose which of the 4 memories to pursue in order to learn more about her past. I chose to learn more about her friend Sol; I had a feeling he was important to her. If I had chosen a different memory, the course of the story would be altered. How cool is that?
This memory of Saul was comforting and good, but I needed to find him and learn more. The whole event was exhausting, so I went home to go to bed.
The next day I decided to find Saul. I knew that he lived on the island of Solvia so I wanted to go there. I had some quests to complete in order to be ready to travel to Solvia and the playtest ended when those quests were complete. I wonder what I will learn about myself in the full game.
Final Thoughts
The purpose of a playtest is to have real players test out a game before it’s released as a demo or a full game. The players look for bugs in the game and point out aspects of the gameplay which could be improved. I thought the game was very playable as is, and it made sense to me. I played for an hour, and the game contained more features than I had space to write about here. I even played the piano in my house! I expect the full game to be really nice.
Wetter was developed by a small indie studio of three, based in Austria. Their backgrounds are computer engineering, electrical engineering and cultural sociology. Together they made a really interesting game. The team hopes to release a demo of Wetter in October 2026 and release the full game in November 2026. If you want to learn more about the game, you can visit the Steam page.
Do you like our content?
Subscribe to our daily news and never miss a review!