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Seems like the founder of Daedalic Jan Müller-Michaelis (who calls himself Jan “Poki” Baumann now) decided to return back to game making. At least he released this “point-and-click short story”. It’s cheap and German-language only for some reason, with recognisable art style and music score by Poki and his band. From the Steam’s description:

Dünnes Eis bridges the gap between Poki’s music and his games: it is an interactive music video for the well-known song of the same name, which Baumann Bergmann Pokinsson re-released in 2024.

In the usual Pokiesque manner, the game deals with the themes of the song in three densely narrated chapters. Players accompany South Pole explorer Cliffi on his lonely work at an Antarctic station. Both the song and the game are about missing and being missed.

Anyone who misses Poki’s games will love Dünnes Eis.

Can you speak English?

Are you asking me or the game?)) I can, and the game only speaks German, at least by now. The title translates as Thin Ice, and the German reviews state it’s pretty much a classic Daedalic-style adventure, not just an interactive trailer, with puzzles and all.

hehe, I am just stating my frustration about the English language absence from the game.

Hope it gets localized very soon

Thanks for the info, Doom! Bought it the moment I read your post. What a nice surprise, I thought he’d left the gaming business for good. BTW he was always called Poki.

I’m going to play it as soon as I’ve finished This Bed We Made, which I like quite a bit.

Please share your thoughts after you play it, Karlok!

Karlok - 22 May 2024 10:59 PM

BTW he was always called Poki.

Yes, I know, but he changed his surname out of a sudden, quite unusual given his age and status.

So I played the game. It’s okay. But I’m more critical than the overwhelmingly positive German comments.

It has the familiar Poki humour written all over it. That’s good. It’s short, apparently most people finished it in 90 minutes. It goes without saying that it took me longer, but I tried every inventory object on everything to see if the game would come up with a unique response, like in Edna and Harvey, and it did most of the time. That was cool! I liked the few references to previous games I recognized as such and I can also see the connections between the song and the game.

And now for the cons. I didn’t care for the song, although it doesn’t take itself seriously. The story didn’t make much sense to me. In the first part of the game you collect and use objects but there are no real puzzles, the game tells you what to do and there’s even a very simple to-do list. The puzzles in the second part involve trial-and-error: moving body parts or stuff this way or that. Not my kind of puzzle.

I’m not sorry I played this watered-down version of a game. That’s it. I read there won’t be English subtitles any time soon. If ever.

Expected so much from the game description… At least there’s more to it than just an interactive video clip, so maybe Poki will return with a proper game in the near future.

Doom - 01 June 2024 09:51 AM

Expected so much from the game description… At least there’s more to it than just an interactive video clip,

Absolutely. I can’t think of anything it has in common with a video clip.

so maybe Poki will return with a proper game in the near future.

Don’t hold your breath.

Karlok - 01 June 2024 10:51 PM

Don’t hold your breath.

He’s currently doing a series of “let’s watch let’s plays of Edna & Harvey” on his channel, he published recordings of his 2016 Deponia Doomsday Tour where they performed songs from the game. It’s pretty obvious he wants to return to game making. I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts a new adventure company, especially now that Daedelic is nearly dead and he could probably return all of his licenses.