Indie games are a bit outside my purview, considering my video game resume (lame) reads a bit like this: N64 glory days, Madden/NCAA throughout high school, game du jour for some of college before the realities of real life limited me to Doodle Jump.
All that is to say, THIS LOOKS SWEET. A brief rundown:
0:02: Not being from Wisconsin, I've never actually heard or seen a badger (I know). But these Badger sounds seem pretty accurate and sweet. While playing this game, I am totally a Badger on the prowl, looking for some Gophers (had to) or shit.
0:06: Might and Delight is a pretty sweet name for an indie game studio, I'd say. I also don't know the names of any other indie game studios, so there's that.
0:14: This badger charging headfirst into a tree and just staying there for a few seconds is the perfect metaphor for a late-game Bret Bielema clock management blunder, followed by the reactionary sideline shot of befuddlement.
0:19: The badger race is quickly redeemed, however, when the cub (or perhaps his sibling, who knows, they all look the same) crouches into the grass, stalks a fox (that's a fox, right?) and eventually nails it with a badass running leap attack beginning at 0:30. Exactly how I would've done it.
0:33: Now it's nighttime and there's some light following our pack from above. Cool.
0:43: Back to daylight, and that light above has been replaced by some nasty-sounding circling hawks or something. BIRDMAN BIRDMAN.
0:49: The lead badger defty dives into the tall grass to avoid the hawk BUT OH SHIT. A hawk swoops out of NOWHERE to snatch another cub and boost it into the air with the gnarliest of hawk screeches.
1:02: This got real. After the trailer reminds us this game is called "Shelter," we're led to believe our pack has been narrowed to one badger, who's now surrounded by a torched, still-on-fire forest with apparently nowhere to go. Probably the last level, and alas, no SPOILER ALERT.
The description to the video, presumably written by Might and Delight's ace PR bro, says this game is shaping up to be something "really special." Heck yeah, it is.
The trailer also, the description adds, ran through the most important important aspects of cub life: hunting. "The more they eat," it says, "the more they grow and the more active they become." Cue one last Bieledig, though I'm not sure that latter part is true, because this did indeed happen. No way he stayed "active" that night.
Kudos to Mashable for bringing this game to our attention (h/t to @MichelleShuchuk for the retweet).