Animal Well

Animal Well is one developer (Billy Basso) building one of the densest puzzle boxes in modern Metroidvania design over seven years. The portable case is that every secret rewards a short session. You can put it down after fifteen minutes having found one new thing and feel exactly the right amount of clever about it.

Game overview

You are a small blob in a tall well full of animals that mostly want to kill you, eat you, or unsettle you. There are no weapons in the conventional sense. You pick up tools (a yo-yo, a slinky, a flute, a top, a frisbee) that solve traversal puzzles and let you bother specific animals into letting you past them. The map opens outward in classic Metroidvania fashion, but the secret-hunting layer goes deeper than any 2024 game in the genre, with 64 eggs to collect and a 65th hidden reward for completionists.

The “third layer” of community puzzles that made Animal Well famous in 2024 plays out largely outside the game itself. Inside the cartridge it is a single-player game throughout. The eggs and postcards you find belong to your save file; there is no trading or sync between players.

Where you can play it

Animal Well launched simultaneously on 9 May 2024 across PC (Steam, DRM-free), PS5, and Nintendo Switch. The Xbox Series X|S version followed as a shadow-drop on 17 October 2024 via the Xbox Partner Preview. There is no Xbox One or PS4 version, no GOG or Epic release, and no mobile port. Billy Basso has said GOG and other PC storefronts are “maybe someday” but nothing has been announced.

On Switch 2, Animal Well does not have a separate native build. Instead, a free patch detects Switch 2 hardware and re-enables a layer of lighting and visual effects that were toned down to ship on Switch 1. The same enhancement is baked into the Lost in Cult physical pressing released in late 2025. The Switch 2 visual upgrade is real and noticeable; if you only own a Switch 2, the Switch version is now the best handheld build that does not require Steam Deck ownership.

On Steam Deck the game is Verified and looks gorgeous, with one caveat: battery draw is around 13 to 14 W at 60 fps, which is heavy for an apparently pixel-art game. Expect roughly two hours of battery on the original Deck and a bit more on the OLED.

Cross-saves and keeping your progress

The honest answer: there is no cross-save between platforms, and there will not be one. Steam Cloud syncs PC to Steam Deck inside a Steam account. Beyond that, each platform owns its own save. Billy Basso has stated on the Steam discussion forums that he will not build cross-save because it would require running a server and forcing players to create an account, and he is not willing to do either.

For a puzzle game where the entire experience is “what did you find,” this matters more than for a run-based game. If you are 40 hours into a Switch save and want to keep going on Steam Deck, you start fresh. Pick the device you intend to finish it on, and commit at the start.

The most common Animal Well setups that work cleanly:

• Steam (PC) + Steam Deck for one continuous save across desk and handheld.
• One Switch (Switch 2 hardware preferred) for everywhere-you-go play with the enhanced visuals.
• One PS5 if it is your primary home console and you want the best big-screen pixel-art presentation.

Features that matter on the move

• Twenty-to-sixty-minute curiosity sessions. You can pick it up to chase one specific egg, find it, and put it down. The map is your save state.
• Suspend-resume is reliable on every platform tested. The game runs in a single offline world, no background services to drop.
• Pixel art that reads on any screen. The atmosphere relies on lighting and silhouette, both of which scale cleanly from a 7-inch handheld to a 4K TV.
• Controller throughout. No touch or motion required. An 8BitDo Pro 2 or an Xbox controller is fine.
• Heavier battery than the art suggests. The dynamic lighting and shaders cost more than you would expect; pack a battery for long trips.

Recommended setup

For Steam Deck owners, the PC version paired with a Steam Cloud-synced desktop is the cleanest experience. For a single-device player, the Switch version on Switch 2 hardware is the best portable experience available without buying a Steam Deck, thanks to the lighting enhancement patch. PS5 owners get the largest-screen version with the strongest controller in the lineup (the DualSense haptics for picking up tools are a genuine bonus).

The controllers guide covers the controller pairings that work across the lineup. The cross-saves cornerstone walks through the wider picture of which platforms talk to which.

Verdict

A short list of indie Metroidvanias from the last decade earn the description “essential.” Animal Well is on that list. The portable case is clean: short curious sessions on a device you carry, with no save-sync drama to manage because there is no save-sync. Buy it on the platform you will finish it on, and budget a long weekend for the eggs.