Stunning adventure game The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales gets a release date and a demo

The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales, Do My Best and TinyBuild's incoming fantasy narrative adventure game, now has a release date and a playable demo. 

As revealed at the Future Games Show Summer Showcase Powered by Intel, players can now look forward to filling the shoes of protagonist Etienne Quist – a writer-turned-thief with the ability to dive into books – come June 22, 2023, on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X, PS4 and Xbox One (plus Game Pass too). Better still, the game's playable demo is available right now. 

Central character Quist is a one-time acclaimed writer who, after being found guilty of an awful crime, can no longer face writing. Keen to restore his name and his status, Quist strikes a deal with a magical mob boss who grants him the ability to enter the story worlds of classical books. In exchange for being able to rediscover his craft, Quist must locate and steal legendary items for his criminal helper – including Thor's hammer and King Arthur's Excalibur.  

Through all of this, Quist will journey through everywhere from medieval prisons to snowy mountains, and sci-fi spaceships, among many other written worlds framed by the page and the reader's imagination. As a narrative adventure game, you'll in turn be tasked with deciphering myriad mental and physical puzzles that demand intuitive, critical thinking as you flit between fantasy and Quist's reality. The "mystical power of ink", according to The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales' Steam page, can be used to manipulate your surroundings, unlocking new paths to explore, and, ultimately, edging you closer to restoring your name. 

If any of that sounds exciting, The Bookwalker: Thief of Tales' demo is available to play right now. The game in full is scheduled to launch on June 22, 2023.

If you’re looking for more excellent games from today's Future Games Show, have a look at our official Steam page.

Joe Donnelly
Contributor

Joe Donnelly is a sports editor from Glasgow and former features editor at 12DOVE. A mental health advocate, Joe has written about video games and mental health for The Guardian, New Statesman, VICE, PC Gamer and many more, and believes the interactive nature of video games makes them uniquely placed to educate and inform. His book Checkpoint considers the complex intersections of video games and mental health, and was shortlisted for Scotland's National Book of the Year for non-fiction in 2021. As familiar with the streets of Los Santos as he is the west of Scotland, Joe can often be found living his best and worst lives in GTA Online and its PC role-playing scene.

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