I enjoyed Powerhoof’s previous games, such as The Drifter, so when I saw LudoNarraCon 2026 include a demo of the developer’s next game, I was excited to try it. However, The Telwynium isn’t exactly a new game. The Telwynium: Book One, Book 2, and Book 3 were all released on itch.io even before The Drifter came out. The fourth entry will complete the story, and then all four parts will be brought to Steam as a single, complete game. As such, The Telwynium: Book One currently serves as a Steam demo for the rest.
The Telwynium is designed to resemble early adventure games, and this is especially clear in its retro-style graphics. On top of that, it offers different filter options that mimic specific looks, such as a CRT, an old TV, and even a broken black-and-white TV. Some of these options make it hard to play because it becomes difficult to see what’s actually on the screen, but it’s a fun feature to include for nostalgia.
It’s a point-and-click adventure game in which you switch between options to move, look, or interact before clicking on characters or objects in the environment. At first, I found it tedious to choose a different option from the game’s interface each time I wanted to do something new, but then I checked the in-game instructions and learned you can also right-click to switch between them. That made it feel much smoother. Interacting with certain objects adds them to your inventory, where you can click an item to use it with another item or something in the environment. Puzzles progress in a typical adventure-game style, where you need to use different items together to move forward. I got stuck a few times as I played, but usually because I missed something I needed to interact with in the environment rather than because the puzzle itself tripped me up. In retrospect, my use of the filters probably held me back.
The story begins with the main character, his childhood friends, and a few other characters on the road after their village was attacked. It pays homage to fantasy novels, most notably The Wheel of Time. The early dialogue that sets up the story had me thinking, “Isn’t this how The Eye of the World starts?” even before the characters talked about how women can use magic while men can’t anymore. However, the developer is open about The Wheel of Time being a major inspiration, and it has enough original aspects that it doesn’t just feel like a copy, so that didn’t diminish my interest.
By the end, The Telwynium: Book One resolves its most immediate conflict while leaving plenty of loose threads to carry into the rest of the game. It left me interested in seeing what will happen from here, whether I decide to play Book Two and Book Three in their current forms or wait for the full game to be released on Steam.
