Following the release of Digital Bird Playground, I was curious what Tom van den Boogaart was up to with his other long-awaited game, a follow-up to Bernband. 2014's first-person explorer remains one of my favourite games, the game I recommend to people more than anything this side of Skeal, and I'm still happy just seeing snippets of his work on a new alien city for the waggly-handed wanderer to get lost in. No, still no firm word when we'll get to play it. Yes, I'm happy to wait, going by how lovely his work-in-progress screenshots and videos have looked. Come see.

Tom van den Boogaart has released a fair few games since Bernband, particularly for the Sokpop Collective's Patreon. He's also started then stopped making plenty more, including a samurai slasher and a Prey 2-esque alien bounty-hunt 'em up. Bernband is one he's seemed to keep returning to, hashing out the shape of it and trying different styles. The current-ish incarnation has that same low-res look but replaces the sprite characters with pleasantly bulbous 3D models.

When Tom tweets out wee GIFs and bits, I enjoy imagining they're snaps or Snapchats from our friend's holiday. Somewhere, out there in the depths of space, a clueless tourist with wiggly-waggly hands and tippy-tappy feet is very excited to have seen a hoverhat.

pic.twitter.com/timFUYuO2N

— Bernband (@bernband) July 14, 2018

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Our friend is fascinated by this floppy pulp data storage device.

pic.twitter.com/XtyKcNCzqM

— Bernband (@bernband) May 3, 2018

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God knows how our wagglepal ended up in a sewer but the birds are lovely.

pic.twitter.com/2c1dKvfZPY

— Bernband (@bernband) March 19, 2018

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The intrepid explorer at one point even started touching things.

pic.twitter.com/OztqIeuKW9

— Bernband (@bernband) October 26, 2017

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Though unfortunately this seems to cause more clueless etiquette violations. Is shoving better or worse than tip-tapping up to someone in the corner of a car park to stare with fascination at their urination?

gameplay pic.twitter.com/mKMDLmgVS0

— Bernband (@bernband) September 1, 2018

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The dear little wanderer, head in the clouds.

pic.twitter.com/4ABAvoqOmZ

— Bernband (@bernband) December 2, 2018

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My favourite spot in the original Bernband is a sleepy bar somewhere in a back alley, a place I can never quite remember how to reach so I'm always happy when an evening spent wandering through recitals and dodging hovercars happens to lead me there. It's a good note to end a night on. Give me a drink and something to eat. I'm done.

pic.twitter.com/AlMnhrfcpS

— Bernband (@bernband) March 26, 2019

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Bernband: I will wait for you. Please keep sharing snaps and videos from your exploits.

The original Bernband is still free to download from Game Jolt. It really is quite good.