Here’s a clever little indie game idea about jumping from one shadow to the next. SCHiM is from Dutch indie devs Ewoud van der Werf and Nils Slijkerman—it’s one we followed online up until its July 2024 launch.

Players take control of a frog. The goal is then to use shadows to hop and ribbit your way around a unique 3D world. Marvellous? Ribbit.

Balancing Lights and Shadows in SCHiM

There are two notable things going on here with SCHiM:

1. The two-tone art style.
2. The shadow hopping concept

Indie games always innovate like this and we kind of struggle to think what sort of genre this fits into. Action? Adventure? Puzzler? Platformer? A hybrid of all of them, really, but with a big emphasis on a sedate pace.

It’s not a challenging game. The focus is on relaxation and enjoying the aesthetic.

Naturally, you’re limited to a specific area you can jump to, which creates the main hop of the game. Keep an eye on shadows. Jump to them when you can!

It’s a great concept, no doubt, and the three hour gameplay time in SCHiM means it doesn’t outstay its welcome. Yet even in that limited time the game does get a little bit repetitive.

The devs do shake things up a little with straightforward puzzle solving. Yet that’s pretty simplistic and, thus, the main thrust of the game stays with the shadow hopping.

All of which makes SCHiM a breezy and relaxing time of it. That’s great! If that’s what you’re after. If there’s a sequel to this we’d certainly like to see the devs make this a more challenging platformer/adventure game hybrid. As that also has a lot of potential.

But for what it is, here’s a cute and uplifting little adventure that more than appeals across its play time. There’s a fun little score to go with the art style, too, from music studio Moonsailor.

This thing is out on PC and all consoles. If it piques your interest with its looks then this is more than worth a whirl. Although the lack of gameplay variation may hold it back a little, it’s still easy to swoon for it.

Playing as a little frog hiding from society, hopping between shadows? That’s a thumbs up from us.