by 
One of my favourite pieces of software for the Nintendo DSi was Flipnote Studio, a free creation tool that let anyone, regardless of experience or skill level, try their hand at short, flipbook-style animations.
Admittedly, I was never any good at it, never producing anything that I was comfortable sharing with anyone but friends and family, but that didn't stop me from pretending like I was the next Chuck Jones, pouring countless hours into devising fun little animations that probably looked like chicken scratch in retrospect.
Why am I bringing all this up now? I hear you ask, having undoubtedly failed to read the headline. Well, there's a new game coming to Steam, called Reason & Rhyme, which, among other things, has a ridiculously charming art style that seems laser-focused on people with a nostalgia for the memorable DSi app.
Reason & Rhyme is the latest project from Toyful Games, a studio comprised of the developers Tim Fitzrandolph (JellyCar, Where's My Water?, Parking Garage Rally Circuit) and Chad Cable (Where’s My Water?, Disney Emoji Blitz).
It is described as a "short two-player online co-operative cartoony adventure" and has an art style "heavily influenced by Flipnote", according to Fitzrandolph, with the team going to great lengths to research and recreate the Flipnote style before evolving it further to what you see today.
"A Flipnote Studio-styled game has been on the to-do list for a long time!" Cable told me over email. "Nintendo is a major inspiration, especially the DS and 3DS era when they made so many small, strange games you never knew you wanted. Flipnote was the perfect blend of retro and modern: chunky outlines, clear bright visuals, big expressions. We’re also big believers in creative constraints, so it was the perfect opportunity.
"Our original prototype had more of everything - colours, patterns, textures - but it felt too noisy. We cut everything back to the original colour palette and dither patterns, carefully adding back only what the game design needed (Three colours and a handful of textures). Even though it’s not technically accurate, we’re hoping it still feels true to the Flipnote style.
"I also tried to open Flipnote Studio 3D to see if I had any old drawings, but was met with software updates…" he continued. "What a world! haha"
As the Steam page states, Reason & Rhyme isn't being designed to be a 40-60-hour epic, but is instead pitched as a short game that can be completed in "an afternoon" — or "perhaps a few sessions".
The setup is this: players take control of flightless birds dropped onto a mysterious island, with the goal of using proximity chat to communicate and solve environmental puzzles to find a way back to safety. It all sounds rather lovely and is coming "soon," according to the description on the latest trailer.
If you can't wait until then, however, there's some egg-xcellent news, as it appears that a Steam demo is already available for you to try out for yourself.