Theropods: dinosaurs, a huntress and an astronaut, without a single line of dialogue
Among this summer's independent releases, Theropods caught my attention after reading the review from Gamereactor France. It is a pixel-art point-and-click adventure about friendship and dinosaurs, available on PC via Steam since August 20, 2026, and published by Dionous Games.
What struck me most is the story of how it was made. The game is the work of Lost Token, a team of three people who spent more than ten years on it. Its creators, Kostas Skiftas and Sarah Duffield-Harding, come from animation rather than game design, and that shows in the care given to the hand-drawn animations.
The story takes place in prehistoric times, when humans and dinosaurs coexist. After a meteorite falls, the village of a red-haired huntress is attacked by a bloodthirsty tribe. At the same moment, an astronaut crashes into this world and looks for a way to get home. The two characters team up to save the villagers, and all of this is told without any dialogue or text.
In terms of gameplay, you collect objects to use them alone or combine them. The inventory rarely holds more than three or four items, and most puzzles fit on a single screen. Pressing H reveals all the points of interaction, and there is neither survival nor fail states. The reviewer says they were rarely stuck.
The strengths mentioned are the pixel art, the music, the story and the creativity of the solutions. The weaknesses: the game is short, two to three hours, rather easy, and the gameplay seems to take a back seat, perhaps deliberately. Gamereactor France gives it 8/10. Personally, I like the idea of a small, unhurried adventure that takes the time to tell a friendship without a single word.
Source: Gamereactor France
What struck me most is the story of how it was made. The game is the work of Lost Token, a team of three people who spent more than ten years on it. Its creators, Kostas Skiftas and Sarah Duffield-Harding, come from animation rather than game design, and that shows in the care given to the hand-drawn animations.
The story takes place in prehistoric times, when humans and dinosaurs coexist. After a meteorite falls, the village of a red-haired huntress is attacked by a bloodthirsty tribe. At the same moment, an astronaut crashes into this world and looks for a way to get home. The two characters team up to save the villagers, and all of this is told without any dialogue or text.
In terms of gameplay, you collect objects to use them alone or combine them. The inventory rarely holds more than three or four items, and most puzzles fit on a single screen. Pressing H reveals all the points of interaction, and there is neither survival nor fail states. The reviewer says they were rarely stuck.
The strengths mentioned are the pixel art, the music, the story and the creativity of the solutions. The weaknesses: the game is short, two to three hours, rather easy, and the gameplay seems to take a back seat, perhaps deliberately. Gamereactor France gives it 8/10. Personally, I like the idea of a small, unhurried adventure that takes the time to tell a friendship without a single word.
Source: Gamereactor France
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