Reason & Rhyme Brings Flipnote Studio Nostalgia to Steam as Co-op Puzzle Game

Toyful Games has announced Reason & Rhyme, an upcoming Steam release that channels the distinctive visual style of Nintendo DSi's Flipnote Studio into a new co-operative puzzle experience.

The game is described as a short two-player online co-operative cartoony adventure. Players control flightless birds dropped onto a mysterious island, using proximity chat to communicate and solve environmental puzzles to find their way back to safety. The development team researched and recreated the Flipnote visual language before evolving it further for the game's final look.

Reason & Rhyme comes from Tim Fitzrandolph and Chad Cable of Toyful Games. Fitzrandolph has previously worked on JellyCar, Where's My Water?, and Parking Garage Rally Circuit. Cable co-developed Where's My Water? and Disney Emoji Blitz.

According to Cable, the Flipnote-inspired aesthetic presented a creative opportunity grounded in constraint. "A Flipnote Studio-styled game has been on the to-do list for a long time," Cable said. "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."

The team initially prototyped with expanded visual variety, but found the result too visually busy. They returned to Flipnote's original color palette and dither patterns, selectively adding back only the textures the game design required. "Even though it's not technically accurate, we're hoping it still feels true to the Flipnote style," Cable explained.

Reason & Rhyme is pitched as a short experience completable in an afternoon or a few sessions rather than a lengthy narrative game. A Steam demo is currently available for players interested in trying the game before its full release, which is listed as coming "soon."