Letters to Arralla evokes such a powerful sense of place, from the moment you enter its Australian-inspired world. You begin your adventure on a dinghy, and land on the island of Arralla to sounds and sights that’ll be immediately familiar to those who live, or have ever visited, Australia.
It’s not just the sound of currawongs and kookaburras that echo across the island, or the rustle of dry leaves in the wind. It’s also the colour palette – yellow, beige, brown, and light green – which well represents the Australian outback. You step foot on Arralla, and you’re immediately transported.
You might be a Turnip with a delivery job (and a funny floppy bum), but you might as well be a tourist in this virtual world, visiting a layered and idyllic facsimile of Australia. With this lovely backdrop, clearly inspired by the experiences and memories of Victoria-based game development team, Little Pink Clouds, you can step forth with a sense of whimsy and wonder about the world.
Once you’re saddled with the responsibility of delivering mail within Arralla, knowing nothing about your surrounds or the people within them, you can move on, bum flopping around, with a goal to learn, see, and understand everything.
Letters to Arralla is essentially a cosy mail delivery sim, with little puzzle elements. You can explore a wide open world at length, and meet a number of funny vegetable people as you roam. The game’s demo, now available on Steam, charts your early steps into this world, and your very first lot of mail delivery items. There’s letters and parcels and strange little collectibles, all of which need a welcoming home.
At first, your pathway is unclear, and you’ll spend plenty of time basking in the outback before you make your first move. Then slowly, the puzzle pieces fall. What Letters of Arralla requires of you is an observant mind. Each letter you gather has a particular symbol or image on it, that must be found in the game’s world. Once you understand these connections, and how each person relates to each parcel, you can eventually determine how best to deliver your goodies, to make everyone happy.
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And hey, if you want to sneak a peak at each letter for added context, it might just help you on your way. It’s super illegal, by the way, but that’s never stopped anyone, has it? Can a jiggly turnip really be sentenced for crimes of this calibre?
The demo for Letters to Arralla paints such a beautiful picture of life on the island, that it’s hard not to feel a longing for its bright shores. When even mail peeking is forgiven, because everyone has trust in their neighbours, you know you’re in a good place. And really, it’s not so far removed from the real world, so as to be alien.
Arralla is inspired by a very real place, and a very real feeling of community, friendship, and freedom.
I didn’t expect to be so attached to this game and its world on entry. I’ve spent years covering its development from near and afar, and in the spirit of full disclosure, I know many of the game’s developers. But having now played the demo, I better understand just how evocative this game is, and what strong sense of identity defines it.
It’s rare that a game makes you feel so connected to your home country. But it forms that bond so quickly, and so breezily, that players will simply be swept up before they know it, into a world where everything is easier, and you can spend time just listening to the trees.
Letters to Arralla does not currently have a release date, but a demo is now available via Steam.
