PaperKlay Preview

I've been looking forward to PaperKlay ever since my wife found it one day while scrolling through Twitter (now X). I was immediately charmed by the paper and cardboard style, and I'm always happy to play a collectathon, so I was chuffed to see it was part of the Steam Next Fest.

Despite already knowing how the game looks through the countless screenshots I've seen on X or been shared by my wife, I was smitten by the visuals as soon as the loading screen finished. There were several areas that I stood around to admire, such as the frog head that spewed a waterfall out of its mouth! I could see fingerprint indentures around its head, and although I don't know if that's an added detail or the developer's actual print, it still looked fantastic. The nuances found all around the world make it clear that WhyKev built everything with such love!

Another thing I thoroughly enjoyed was the soundtrack: while I don’t usually notice them, PaperKlay’s stood out due to its playful and lighthearted nature. It was reminiscent of cartoons I used to watch as a kid! The main character and his deuteragonist’s chemistry only add to that nostalgic feeling, with gentle quips and back-and-forths. The same charisma extends to the quests, as I was chuffed when I had to assist a very grumpy frog grandpa by carrying him and helping him eat flies from around the world. 

Whilst platformers are quite simple, there are nuances in the gameplay that can mark a stark difference between a good can mark a stark difference between good, great, and alright. Thankfully, while I do have some feedback on it, none of it should be difficult to correct — at least from the perspective of a gamer who doesn't know how to develop.

The movement felt a tad heavy; it wasn't too bad, but it didn't give me the feeling of freedom I'm usually looking for when booting up a platformer. I want to feel like a spry anime protagonist, jumping around, kicking the air, and doing a backflip to land on a platform, even if it's just to collect an egg or feed a grandpa.

The camera really added a sense of freedom, especially when paired up with the ability to move it as you like. While you technically can do that, I did feel like I had to fight it quite often — it kept trying to snap back into other positions! It's not terrible (especially when it makes me nostalgic for the ol' Nintendo 64 era), but I do hope it gets smoother!

Unfortunately, I found typos and mismatches between the spoken and written dialogue. During some cutscenes — such as when we get to meet the villain — the captions disappear! I'm not sure if that was on purpose. Although I do love the animation of the text as it appears, I would appreciate being able to click a button and have it all pop up at once but not skip anything (such as the voice acting).

I'm looking forward to seeing in the full release is more interactions with the world. PaperKlay has some of the best environments I've seen in gaming, and I'd love to be able to do more with it! By this, I mean it would be cool if I could hit the grass in order to get coins or smack trees in hopes of having something (even just leaves) fall from it.

That being said, the same lack of interaction also made the world unique in its own way, as I felt like a giggly child while running around the water. It constantly reminded me that the world is made out of paper and cardboard (though I swear I also see some clay), which was very exciting to me!

The areas could do with some small additions to make it easier to know what to do. For example, I didn't notice two of the quest-givers because they just looked like random NPCs (which was, in hindsight, my bad because there aren't "random NPCs" in the game).

All in all, I'm pleased I got to try the game. It has a lot of potential and charm, and the problems I had with it should be easy to fix (...maybe; again, I'm no developer), so I recommend picking up the demo and trying it for yourself. If you like what you see, don't forget to wishlist it! PaperKlay is expected to come out in Q2 2025.