A new trailer for Sans Strings Studio’s uniquely fuzzy Unreal project has earned nearly 100,000 wishlists on Steam

I was spinning up new social accounts for the blog last night, when an unusual game development clip caught my attention. The video showed a puppet that wouldn’t look out-of-place on Sesame Street being repeatedly lifted in the air and slammed back down in an old, beat-up boxing gym.

I probably watched this ten full times. Where did it come from? What was it going to be? I didn’t look further into it at the moment. Game Dev Social is full of incredible tech demos we’ll never see or hear from again, and for the sake of the creative process, that needs to be okay. But I get attached easily, so I try to scroll with polite detachment.

So it was a pleasant surprise when I glanced at Games Press today and Felt That: Boxing was at the top of the press releases. I learned that the game has an official announcement trailer that debuted at Summer Game Fest–again, I get attached easily, so I skip these things–and almost 100,000 Steam users have already wishlisted the game.

You can watch the full trailer below:

For you dev-minded folks, I highly suggest checking out Ryan Corniel’s socials for behind-the-scenes glimpses of this real-time digital puppetry that I would not have guessed was possible.

Sans Strings Studios reportedly collaborated with Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, the animation powerhouse created by Seth Green and friends, celebrated for its work on Robot Chicken among numerous other animated hit shows.

Corniel’s co-founder at Sans Strings is Sébastien Deguy, both an Emmy and Academy Award-winning computer graphics creator. Together, the team has created its own “digital puppeteering platform” capable of producing scripted shows, live events, games, and more, according to the studio’s announcement.

The release date for Felt That: Boxing remains to be announced.