We Need More Games Like Echo Weaver

3 hours ago 8

Published Sep 13, 2026, 10:00 AM EDT

Where did all the time go

Image: Moonlight Kids/Akupara Games

Echo Weaver is a platformer due to arrive next month from Moonlight Kids, known for 2021 hit The Wild at Heart. It’s also a Metroidvania that feels a bit like a roguelite, but with more emphasis on puzzles and hand-crafted stages. Put another way, it’s a comfortably familiar adventure that’s also a little different from anything you’ve played before.

The game begins by dropping the player character into an alien environment and setting them free to explore until they either die or run out of time. Whatever they discover, that’s the fruit of a single “cycle.” Then they reappear to attempt some of the same things again in the familiar corridors (stages are handcrafted, not procedurally-generated), while relying on knowledge gleaned from their previous runs. As play progresses, the world they know naturally expands. They find ways to push further in all directions, and to unearth secrets about the mysterious complex that contains them. In the process, they might even learn new things about themselves.

Chris Sumsky, game designer, programmer, and Moonlight Kids co-founder, recalled some of the thinking behind the game’s design, which takes cues from the 2019 indie hit Outer Wilds.

“There are time loop games, of course,” Sumsky told Polygon, “not least of which the very one we were inspired by. There are knowledge-gated games, not many, but they’re gaining popularity. And naturally, there are platformers. Many… many platformers. But we weren’t seeing anyone really combining all these into one.”

Gameplay doesn’t feel especially intense when you put aside the pressure time naturally exerts. As I ran through the demo, which I explored thoroughly over an hour and a half or so, I encountered only a few enemies. The experience reminded me of a time I played a Super Metroid demo at a Sears kiosk and spent several minutes roaming alien corridors, wondering what I was supposed to do next. In Echo Weaver, you’re rarely short of ideas. The minute you spawn again, you make a beeline for that corridor where time expired, eager to spend a few more minutes unearthing its darkest secrets.

Sumsky admitted that a person armed with the right knowledge might boot up the game and reach the end in under ten minutes. “The only thing stopping you is what you don’t know yet,” he says, “and that’s the whole fun of the game! The discovery is real discovery, not just unlocking a new item or ability you didn’t have before.”

Echo Weaver screenshot featuring a text notice that the current loop has been sacrificed

From my own time with the game, that’s accurate. Each new cycle began with a run through brief challenges I’d already vanquished. But on the second or third exposure, they somehow felt different. I knew to run ahead of the spiked block, leaping along platforms to reach safety at the far end of the corridor. I knew to demolish rubbish along the way for resources. By streamlining processes, I bought myself more time to practice tripping a series of switches to open a new gate so I could drop into an unfamiliar new area.

“That’s a hard thing to wrap your head around right away,” Sumsky said of that gameplay loop. “Very few games do this. So that feeling keeps coming back again and again.”

A lot of the puzzles (and even much of the traversal) come down to what you do with your weapon. It’s a wicked blade that lodges in walls and triggers distant switches, on top of the usual things like obliterating nasty creatures. When you reach new areas, you’ll find new applications that change the way you play for every cycle thereafter. You might start in the same place each time, but tedium doesn’t have the chance to set in before you find something genuinely new. Fast travel is unconventional, in the areas I encountered, but entirely possible.

Echo Weaver screenshot - diving toward a pedestal

“We’ve built in all kinds of cool, weird ways to get around the world as you explore more,” Sumsky noted, “and hopefully ways that are clear as soon as you need them (and stay hidden before that!).”

After my time with the demo, during which I explored an expansive area, I wondered how long it might take players to experience everything Echo Weaver has to offer. Some players will blow through certain portions quickly, while others might get stuck on a clever puzzle that someone else grasps within seconds. Or, they might not recognize how significantly a new technique they mastered opens up the world they thought they knew.

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“We had initially planned for a 6-8 hour journey,” said Sumsky. “But as we’re wrapping up development and seeing playtesting… we just don’t know! It might be longer. Especially once you start getting into all the side content… which is pretty substantial.”

He also mentioned a “super ending,” but said nothing further on the topic and I didn’t press for more information. It’s better to save some mystery for our cycles with the game. Most of us will want to discover those thrilling secrets for ourselves. I know I will.

Echo Weaver will be released for Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X on Oct. 8.

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