Over the last few years, “indie” has evolved from a catch-all for smaller-scope games to an intangible ethic and aesthetic. Finding Teddy almost feels like an amalgamation of all-things indie; a charming, atmospheric adventure game, with minimalist music, and blocky pixels. It purloins elements liberally from its peers, and yet it still manages to evolve a personality, albeit a calculated one.
The story, told without words or conventional dialog (more on this later), is as simple as it gets. A young girl wakes up in her bed to find giant spider-legs reaching our from her closet and snatching her prized teddy bear. When she follows to investigate, she arrives in a colorful fantasy world with no obvious way back. Like Limbo, it’s your basic “chase the MacGuffin” story, told visually.
Finding Teddy will almost immediately bring back fuzzy memories of Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP. Like that game, it features low-res pixel art, with a moody palette, and an easy “tap the hotspot” interface. The graphics do have their own distinct style, though, with shades of Cave Story and Fez sprinkled in. Blocky sprites aside, Finding Teddy isn’t really “retro” in any sense, it just uses the blocky graphics for the sake of style. In that respect, it is a gorgeous game. The subtle palette features a lot of deep colors and everything animates expressively. The soundtrack is spare, moody, and ambient and nicely compliments the visuals and the game’s strange sense of otherworldliness.
At its core, this is a simplified adventure game, and its interface works nicely with the touch screen. You’ll tap on obvious hotspots to interact, and there isn’t generally more than one thing on-screen at once to interact with. This feels very streamlined, but like in a traditional adventure game, you can still collect objects and use them to interact with the world in classic “lock and key” fashion.
Finding Teddy offers a few twists on the classic formula, however. You’ll meet a pair of animal companions that can then be employed to help solve puzzles, and act like permanent inventory items. And then there’s the music system… As in Ocarina of Time, you’ll be able to play melodies that have different effects. These are no ordinary notes, however. Like the aliens in Close Encounters, the denizens of Finding Teddy’s world use music to communicate, and eventually you’ll be using this as a sort of conversation system. Plucking out these melodies involves listening and playing back by ear, which can be a bit frustrating for those who are hearing impaired or just have a quiet phone, but they do make for some interesting puzzle design.
Like a lot of adventure games, Finding Teddy struggles at times to find that perfect challenge level. Many of the game’s puzzles are hopelessly obvious, while a handful are so downright devious, many players will give up. There’s no hint system, and very little to do if you get stuck other than to walk around and try different item combinations. This is all well and good for the inventory puzzles, but some of the more obtuse musical puzzles can be a real sticking point.
Finding Teddy is like a children’s storybook for adults. The challenge level, and perhaps a few of the violent death scenes might make it inappropriate for a real kid, but it manages to tickle that child-like sense of intrigue and wonder, and you can play through it in an hour or so, if you don’t get jammed up on the puzzles. It’s undeniably charming, and the kind of thing I could imagine revisiting just for the joy of playing it.