Bring about an age of stupidity in book-bashing game Quote

Remember truth? It used to be in books and said by teachers. Now it’s up a mountain somewhere, suffering the abstract-noun equivalent of anemia.

Quote – which has launched in early access via Steam – is a game about truth, or more accurately, it’s a game about getting rid of truth by knocking its teeth out. Players take on the role of Novella, an ironically named character seeing as she’s on a crusade to destroy all learning and literature from Quote’s strange world.

Developed by London-based studio Vindit, the game pulls on a range of literary and artistic influence to shape its tale of enforced ignorance. Ray Bradbury and Umberto Eco get a look-in, apparently, and the hand-painted visuals are straight out of a Hieronymus Bosch painting – particularly Novella’s unnerving book-eating sidekick, Tatters.

“2017 seems an appropriate time to be launching a game about a world in which truth and knowledge have been eradicated,” explains Vindit founder Robin Lacey.

“We’ve been building Quote for over two years already, working hard to make something very special – a unique world and story, all clad in darkly delicious, hand-drawn art. We’re so excited that people are finally about to see what we’ve been up to.”

The story has been put together by Alec Meer and Dan Griliopoulos – both games journalists, although Griliopoulos now writes for virtual-world-maker, Improbable. The game’s makers also cite 1994 classic Little Big Adventure as an influence, and there’s something of Supergiant Games’ Bastion in the colourful look of Quote’s isometric landscapes.

The early access of Quote is available until 7 February at the bargain price of £9.34. So far this includes the first two chapters of the game, and a procedurally generated Infinite Library mode (eat yer heart out Borges scholars), with new content added as development continues. The final version of Quote is expected to be released in late 2017. You can watch the latest trailer below.