We are Cherrypick Games, an indie studio from Warsaw, Poland, made up of a small, tight-knit
team of 10 passionate creators. Every one of us is deeply involved in making this game a reality,
pouring our hearts into it - and we’re beyond excited to finally start sharing it with you!
Introducing our passion project - ANGST: A TALE OF SURVIVAL
This isn’t just another game for us. It’s the culmination of everything we love about storytelling, immersive worlds, and gameplay that challenges players to think on their feet. We’re creating something we hope will stand out, something you’ll want to dive into again and again.
How It All Began
The project started with a simple idea. While brainstorming, we tossed around a ton of concepts, one of which was a game about a character traveling through time. After long discussions and refining, we felt that while it was a cool idea, we wanted something that spoke to players in a deeper way.
That’s when it hit us: What if we mix survival with roguelite mechanics? We love the survival genre, but we also know how many awesome survival games are out there. We decided to pursue an idea to add something fresh, a mechanic that would tap into the hero progression and enhance this layer of gameplay. We decided to add a roguelite twist. The result? In our game death becomes part of the journey.
The Title
To be honest, we struggled to find a title for our game. We explored several ideas, some quite different from what we ultimately chose. A few examples were: “Remain,” “Somewhere,” “The Nowhere,” “The Cabin,” and “In the Hollow.” Then, “Angst” came up and was added to the whiteboard in our brainstorming room. It clicked immediately!
Angst is a word borrowed from the German language, and according to the Cambridge Dictionary:
angst noun /æŋst/ - a feeling of great worry about a situation, or about your life.
Perfect!
Interestingly, we often perceive certain words in a way where their pronunciation complements their meaning. For example, the word “long” feels awkward to say briefly; we tend to stretch it out into “loooong.” The same goes for words like “short” and many others. We believe “Angst” is another powerful word that, when thought or spoken aloud, feels as unsettling as its meaning. It evokes the experience of struggling to survive alone in a freezing forest, with mysterious entities lurking in the shadows. Angst turned out to be exactly what we were searching for.
The Game: ANGST: A TALE OF SURVIVAL
ANGST is about more than just surviving — it’s about adapting, learning, and pushing forward in a hostile, ever-changing environment. You’ll face new threats with each run, and even in failure, you’ll gain knowledge and experience that help you in future attempts. The roguelite elements ensure that each time you play, you’re met with new challenges and opportunities, keeping the gameplay fresh and engaging.
The world of ANGST is harsh, but it’s also full of mystery. As you survive longer, you’ll begin to unravel the secrets of the world around you, adding layers of depth to the gameplay and the story.
Why We Love It
We’ve always believed that great games come from passion, and ANGST is a testament to that belief. Every aspect of the game — from its mechanics to its narrative — is being crafted with attention to detail. We want to create something that will not only challenge players but also immerse them in a world they’ll want to explore over and over again.
The first big step toward defining our art style was made when we opted for a low-poly aesthetic.
“That’s a nice hat 😁 ", Mateusz, remarked — and that offhand comment became the spark that ignited our creative direction. With the concept in place, the art team dove into experimenting. After several iterations (and a bit of shader magic), we reached the next stage of development.
We all agreed: it looked awesome. Even better, it aligned perfectly with what we had envisioned!
Next, we turned our focus to how color could shape the game world. Our initial idea was to use cooler tones to represent warmth and safety:
Nikita began to "bring our dreams to life" by adding a coloring feature to the game. The main idea was that light sources would create an area around them that colors the surrounding objects. And so, the process began. "The floor is lava" 🔥
Here, you can see how the flames cast light and color onto the surrounding objects.
Meanwhile, we were busy experimenting with character "bleeding effects." Our verdict? "Tarantino would be proud!" We also improvised a lot with the tools at our disposal — in our studio, we like to say, "When the world gives you a bench, make a bridge out of it!"
We kept tweaking the coloring features for a while, but ultimately decided it wasn't quite hitting the mark. So, we moved on, and our art style continued to evolve from there.
This is where we are today:
We’re so excited to share more with you as development progresses. In the coming months, we’ll be offering a behind-the-scenes look at our development process, sharing sneak peeks, and diving deeper into the mechanics that make Angst unique.
Thanks for joining us on this journey.
Stay strong, survivors!
— The Cherrypick Games Team