Islets

Islets follows Iko, a young warrior with an unreliable airship, as he hops between scattered floating islands trying to restart their magnetic cores. Each restored core pulls the surrounding land masses back together, which physically reconfigures the map — old areas reveal new routes once they're connected to neighbors they were never adjacent to before.

Kyle Thompson built the entire game largely solo, hand-painting every screen and animating the characters in a soft, slightly storybook style. The metroidvania structure carries the expected ability upgrades, but the connections-between-islands mechanic gives backtracking a different feel than the usual ability-gate model.

Boss fights are a clear focus — large, distinctly designed monsters and sky pirates with multi-phase patterns that test the moveset you've assembled so far. The supporting cast leans into warmth: a pretentious classmate, a suspiciously friendly frog, and a tour guide whose vibes the game itself flags as a concern.