Wanderlust Travel Stories, a narrative game from former Witcher devs, releases in August

Two former developers from CD Projekt RED's The Witcher (the first one), head story designer Artur Ganszyniec and project lead Jacek Brzeziński, have started a new studio called Different Tales and are releasing a narrative game this August. Wanderlust Travel Stories is all about travelling the world from the perspectives of several characters with their own anecdotes. 

It's meant to be a relaxing experience, despite how rushed globe-trotting can sometimes feel in real life. Although the player is meant to be unhurried, their choices will affect the mood (via "stress" and "fatigue") of the character as well as managing a travel budget through choices made along each trip.

Wanderlust mixes actual photography from around the world with a more game-y interface that puts story text beside minimalist city maps where you can select options to continue the story in various ways.

Wanderlust Travel Stories

(Image credit: Different Stories)

Brzeziński says in a post on the game's Steam page that it's a game he hopes people will play when they're travelling. Or when they wish they're travelling. Each story has you make choices as a different protagonist, coloring their experience of travelling the world. "What you decide also makes the traveler change their world views," he says. "Every journey ends with your character becoming an internally ‘richer’ person." The trailer above briefly teases snippets from a few different stories, each told from a pretty intimate first-person perspective that seems to get into the head of each character.

Wanderlust Travel Stories will release on August 28th, but you can wishlist it on Steam now.

Lauren Morton
Associate Editor

Lauren has been writing for PC Gamer since she went hunting for the cryptid Dark Souls fashion police in 2017. She accepted her role as Associate Editor in 2021, now serving as self-appointed chief cozy games and farmlife sim enjoyer. Her career originally began in game development and she remains fascinated by how games tick in the modding and speedrunning scenes. She likes long fantasy books, longer RPGs, can't stop playing co-op survival crafting games, and has spent a number of hours she refuses to count building houses in The Sims games for over 20 years.

Latest in Adventure
An image of a corpse with the text "You've been re-educated."
I played the lost videogame sequel to 1984, and came away more nostalgic than ever for gaming's awkward adolescence in 1999
Rosella encounters a satyr in a forest in King's Quest 4
Eagle-eyed streamer spots that Roberta Williams' portrait in King's Quest 4 is based on her author photo on the back of the game box: 'I never noticed it before.'
Myst puzzle game
'You’ve been asking, and we’ve been listening': Myst remake adds a whole new world to the classic adventure, one originally introduced in another overhaul from 25 years ago
The character takes a test in a school room.
Expelled! review
Max, protagonist of Life is Strange and Life is Strange: Double Exposure, stares with trepidation at something off-screen with her friend.
Life is Strange: Double Exposure reportedly a 'large loss' for Square Enix, says analyst, who adds: 'The company's IP fundamentally varies too much between good and bad'
Inside
Limbo and Inside studio demands compensation from co-founder Dino Patti for alleged 'unauthorized use of Playdead's trademarks and copyrighted works'
Latest in News
A True Kin knight stands in a ruin in Caves of Qud, flanked by bloodstained furniture and a freshly mortalized corpse.
Despite making a roguelike where you can have countless arms and legs, Caves of Qud's creators say the ideal form is a limbless sphere: 'We started in perfection and only moved farther from God'
Civilization 7 Great Britain - Modern Civ art (via YouTube)
As Civilization 7 struggles to keep up with Civ 5 player counts, a new patch is coming tomorrow with still more UI changes and gameplay tweaks
Metaphor: ReFantazio character art
Metaphor: ReFantazio battle director says turn-based RPGs can still be just as popular as action RPGs: 'I personally believe turn-based games have a long future ahead of them'
assassin's creed shadows review
Assassin's Creed Shadows streamer goes viral after confronting whining commenters: 'Normal people don't get upset about this sh***'
Assassin's Creed Shadows change seasons - An upper-body shot of Yasuke looking cheerfully up into the distance.
'This is just the beginning': Assassin's Creed Shadows dev team thanks fans for their support and promises more to come in the future
Geralt sitting on a wall wearing a Cyberpunk jacket modded by TheRealArdCarraigh
The Witcher 3 devs had to practically remake the game engine to make official modding possible