Behind the Frame is chill anime-inspired puzzle with strong Ghibli vibes
Play as a painter living her best life.
There's something about the trailer for Behind the Frame that just calms you down immediately. It begins with a painter dropping her brush, and instead of immediately picking it up, she stretches leisurely. You can see her sun-dappled apartment, paintings on the walls, lush greenery on a table, and the atmosphere is set.
Developer Silver Lining Studio describes Behind the Frame as a "story-oriented puzzle game", and from the looks of the trailer, the gameplay seems to be a relaxed affair, too. You discover scraps of an old painting and put those together. You paint your grumpy neighbour from across the road and his cat. You make a good cup of coffee. Gameplay takes place in first-person perspective, letting you interact with certain items in the room, which stand out simply thanks to being rendered as 2D cell-shaded objects. Sometimes the gameplay is broken up by simple cutscenes.
The thing I really enjoy about Behind the Frames is the style. Everything from character design to its bright cutscenes reminds me of Studio Ghibli films such as Kiki's Delivery Service, and I think we can never have enough games like that. If you agree, you can wishlist Behind the Frame on Steam now. There's no release date yet.
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.