A downloadable game for Windows

Buy Now$9.99 USD or more

Fossil Echo is a short and challenging story driven platformer with hand drawn 2D graphics. Set in a fantastical world, it tells a wordless tale of adventure and mystery.

Features

  • Varied and detailed environments
  • Hand animated 2D characters
  • Over 15 minutes of fully animated cutscenes
  • A wordless, mysterious story
  • Breathtaking orchestral score
  • Very dynamic and demanding platforming gameplay
  • Tense stealth mechanics
  • Easy Mode lets you enjoy the story without worrying too much about the challenge.
  • Well hidden secrets and unlockables
  • No HUD or on-screen indications
  • Speedrun-Friendly (in-game timers...)

Story 

Influenced by the Oddworld series, Ico, and Shadow of the Collosus, as well as Studio Ghibli films, Fossil Echo tells the story of a young boy and his journey to climb a giant tower in the middle of the sea. How and why he got there are questions that will be answered via playable flashbacks during his ascent. The game offers over 15 minutes of fully animated cutscenes and the story is told without any dialogue or written text.

Gameplay

Fossil Echo mixes old-school, "die & retry" platforming gameplay with some stealth elements. As in Abe's Oddysee and Another World, you have little margin for error; precise movement and timing is required to get through and avoid confrontation, as the character is young, weak, and unable to fight or kill, most of the time...

Art

Fossil Echo features a detailed art style, with pre-rendered/hand painted backgrounds and hand animated 2D characters. Adopting the style of animated film, it presents an array diverse environments, from lush forest to snow covered tower. With no HUD or any indications displayed on screen, the game aims at immersing you from start to finish.

Sound

The world of Fossil Echo is brought to life by over two hours of unique, original music by John Robert Matz (Gunpoint, Rodina) and sound design by Gordon McGladdery (Rogue Legacy, Fantastic Contraption). Music and sound work in concert to set the mood and highlight the story and actions during gameplay and cutscenes.


Fossil Echo is developed by Phil Crifo (Story, Art & Design), Thierry Boura (Programming), John Robert Matz (Music), and A Shell In The Pit (Sound Design).
StatusReleased
PlatformsWindows
Rating
Rated 4.1 out of 5 stars
(32 total ratings)
AuthorAwaceb
GenrePlatformer
Tags2D, artgame, Cute, Difficult, Painting
LinksSteam

Purchase

Buy Now$9.99 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $9.99 USD. You will get access to the following files:

Fossil Echo - Windows PC 1 GB

Comments

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Hi there,

My son & I tried to play this game today but the screen was flickering too much for us after we chose 'easy' so we closed the game. Is there a fix to stop the screen flickering? (This is just a guess, but maybe it has something to do with my Windows 10 computer being able to play .wmv files properly?)

Thanks

Found the fix my problem!

I needed to run the executable in Windows 8 Compatibility mode 👍

(-9)

skill issue

Where is the save file hidden?

Is it available the Linux version?

(+1)

Thank you for contributing this game to the itch.io bundle for racial equality and justice. What a gorgeous piece of digital art! 

I've written a review of Fossil Echo on my indie gaming site: https://knavegaming.com/?p=419

If you have any feedback or comments on the review, please feel free to reach out!

(+1)

Nice and fun little game, with good art and music. 

Maybe it felt short, but it was fun to play. For some reason I lost my progress the first time I restarted the game, now it's all good.

(+1)

This is so nice to look at, to the point I wish more of the graphics would reappear in bigger levels instead of being all so single-use. Other than that, I don't know how to sugarcoat it: I really don't like stealth video games. I want to experience the joy of movement, not be punished for daring to move. I beat the game and all the challenging platforming rooms too, but mostly to keep seeing the pretty pictures. The autoscrolling vertical parts played okay though I thought.

(+1)

How do you set easy mode? I just saw control options, credits, and locked options. I thought maybe the option became available after the credits or something, but never saw the option. 


Beautiful game, but I play to unwind, so I'd love to find out more about easy mode.

(+1)

Hey ! Sorry about that.

I've just reuploaded the .exe, the previous one was an older version I uploaded by mistake. You can go ahead and re-download the game and this version (1.10) will prompt you to choose between Normal and Easy mode when launching a new game.

Thanks for playing!

Great, thanks!

(+1)

What a gem! This is a very beautiful little game. The soundtrack is awesome, too. 

Thank you for this experience.

Thanks so much <3

(1 edit) (+1)

Beautiful game, but I seem to be missing how to enable easy mode (Yeah, I know, I should try to suck less LOL)

Hey, you can set easy mode at the start of a new game. Unfortunately you can’t change during a play through. Thanks for the kind words! 

Can you make this game available for Mac? :)

(+1)

Thank you for the game. I had a good time playing it althought sometimes it was very difficult for me. 

(-1)

Enjoyed the game enough that I played it through twice :)

One question, how do you get the last animation (giving the boat back)? I also didn't get how to interact with the Easter eggs off the beaten path.

Some criticism: The orange indicators for the challenges were a nice indication... once. Adding more and more as you continue to die just made me feel bad. Dying is a bit slow, especially in the challenges. The enemy patterns after you've alerted one can get you into situations where it's almost impossible to win without dying.

(+1)

Hey! Thanks a lot for playing and for the fair criticism. 

To get the secret ending you need to finish the game without startling any of the black birds. Here is a guide to help you find them:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1258683337

Thanks for the support !
Cheers

Very much enjoyed the art style, music, and wordless story telling. My only feedback is two things: menu and tutorial. The menu is a little confusing and doesn't look as nice as the game. Most of the features were crossed out and because I didn't know what they were, I simply ignored and it didn't give motivation to finish the game just to see more stuff. Easy mode should be available from the start, also. 

Tutorial- I really appreciated the hand prints on the stone to guide you, however the controls were a little confusing. I found myself not learning what did what, and simply spam tapping because sometimes you would jump and climb, other times you would simply jump and fall. A short little sequence to show us what exactly did what, and how to do it would have been plenty helpful :)

Otherwise AMAZING game, truly beautiful and definitely worth the time. <3

Thanks so much for playing and for the feedback 💖 Cheers!

(+1)

Tahnk you for the game! First of all the design backgrounds are Gorgeous, and I love how in every floor of the tower the scenery around it changes. How the enemies work is very intuitive and well done from a game designer's perspective, and the platforming as well -- even if it gets a bit difficult for me sometimes! The flashbacks of the little kid are absolutely gorgeous. And the music is super atmospheric. Really, awesome work all the way through. Big love! <3 

Thank you so much for playing and for the kind words ! 💖 

(+1)

Tougher than I expected! I like the structure of the game, never gets too frustrating even if it requires some trial and error at times. Great presentation, too. 

Thanks so much for the kind words! 🙂 Glad you enjoyed your time with it. 

I got this game from a bundle a while ago and was gonna install it to play today, but for  some reason I cant install it? What does "this game is hosted on an incompatible third-party website" means?

(+1)

Hey! Sorry about that, we had to wait for Itch.io to bump our upload limit to be able to upload the game to their servers. The game is uploading now and you should be able to download in a couple hours. Thanks for checking it out! Cheers

(+1)

is there a Mac version in the works?

(+6)

We have Mac and Linux versions available on Steam. We’ll add them to itch.io ASAP. Thanks for checking out the game! 

(+2)

Is it available here the Linux version?
:)

(+2)

Sounds good. Waiting on the Linux version here.

I also

me too

(+1)

Awesome, thanks!

(+1)

Count me in for a purchase of the Linux version when it's ready !

(1 edit) (+1)

Thanks for this game, I enjoyed every minute of it.  The music, the gameplay and the story and not a single bug! It is impressive that a small team can create such a epic and amazing game,  your team has a new fan :)

Thank you so much, your comment made our day 💖 Stay tuned for some announcements on our next game soon! 

(+1)

I've barely just played past the tutorial section, but I needed to chime in and say OMG THE CONTROLLLSSSSSS. Dudes, the controls are so silky smooth! I don't think I've ever played a platformer where mantling and wall jumping felt so good. Nice job!

(+1)

Thanks sooo much for the kind words! 💖 It really means a lot. Prepare yourself for a challenge, those controls are gonna be put to the test later on ☺️ Cheers!

(+1)

LOL "later on"?? I'm getting my ass handed to me on the first challenge! I see easy mode in my future... X))

(2 edits) (+2)

Ahah yea it can be a bit unforgiving... Remember Temple challenges are optional, you can skip them and complete the story. Good luck! 🤙🏻

(+1)

What about the Linux version?

(+3)

I’ll make sure we add it ASAP. Thanks for checking out the game!

(+1)

Thank you very much!

+1

;)

(+4)

The current download link, based on Google Drive, has a lot of issues due to hit quotas, probably because of the recent inclusion of Fossil Echo in the current Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality.

Could you please instead host a copy of the game installer on itch.io servers, to make sure it is reliably downloadable?

(+3)

Hello!

We’re just waiting on itch.io to bump up our upload limit to be able to upload the game directly. If you feel like pinging them about it as well, it may help unlocking the situation 🙂

Thanks for the heads up !

Cheers

(+1)

Oh, I didn’t understand that it is only a temporary workaround, it makes more sense this way ;)

If I see no news on this front in a couple days, I’ll ping itch.io support to make sure they understand there are players waiting for it.

It downloads here after a few tries, sill it should really be on the itch.o site for the future .. Game looks really nice!! Playing tonight :D

(+1)

Hey! Thanks for checking out the game 🙏🏻 itch.io bumped our upload limit just moments ago, so we’ll upload ASAP. Cheers!