The developers of very lovely Gris have announced their next game: equally lovely-looking Neva, which will launch next year. It’s a puzzle platformer about a woman and her wolf friend growing closer as they adventure through a dying world.

“Neva chronicles the story of Alba, a young woman bound to a curious wolf cub following a traumatic encounter with dark forces,” Nomada Studio and Devolver Digital say on Neva’s store page. “Together they embark on a perilous journey through a once-beautiful world as it slowly decays around them.”

Trailer spoiler alert: the traumatic event is being attacked by a bunch of black goop monsters that kill mama wolf. That’s definitely going to be a tearjerker. So help me, if they do anything to hurt that wolf cub.

“Neva will feature traditional animation and puzzle platforming, but also combat against monstrous enemies,” Nomada Studio says in its announcement post. “Over time, their relationship will evolve as they learn to work together, helping one another to brave increasingly dangerous situations. The wolf will grow from a rebellious cub to an imposing adult seeking to forge his own identity.”

It sounds a bit like the emotional puzzling vibes somewhere between Ori and the Blind Forest and The Last Guardian, to me.

Neva is planned to launch sometime in 2024 and you can wishlist it on Steam until then.