Supraland: Six Inches Under wasn’t really meant to exist—at least not like this.
Initially conceived as a DLC pack for the puzzle-filled sandbox adventure Supraland, creator David Münnich and his team improvised, experimented, re-scoped, and re-envisioned Six Inches Under into a bigger, fully standalone follow-up designed for anyone to dig into, whether they’ve played the first game or not. What’s even better, that creation is available to play starting today on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and through Xbox Game Pass!
If you’re wondering whether Supra Games’ latest little big adventure is for you, here are five facets of Six Inches Under’s design that should help you decide.
It’s a Connected Underworld
Like the original, Six Inches Under is a first-person 3D “metroidvania”—a unified world filled with paths to discover, and secrets or sub-areas that can only be accessed once you return with a new ability or item.
Unlike the original, Six Inches Under takes place underground, and as such, the vibe’s a little different. Paths are more defined and distinct: caves and corridors connected by a central hub called Cagetown, where all the toy-people survivors of the dreadful Rakening dwell.
The developers characterize the game as “55% exploration, 40% solving puzzles, and 5% combat,” to give you a breakdown. Now on to that other 45%…
Puzzles Permeate Everything
In the world of Six Inches Under, you’re always on the lookout for puzzles—and you’ll quickly find yourself thinking of the environment, your abilities, and even physics itself as a puzzle-solving tool. To help with the design of the puzzles, creator and lead dev David Münnich concocted 13 rules as a guideline, which doubled as a 13-point “checklist” to help him and his team determine whether a puzzle was good or not.
David awards points for puzzles where players set the goal themselves without being told it directly, or puzzles that use a mechanic players are familiar with in an unexpected new way. The puzzle gets more points if players can quickly execute the solution once they have their “Aha!” moment, or if the result is more interesting than a door opening or an elevator turning on. For David, a good puzzle scores around 8–10, and anything above that is rare. (And he’s a stickler; the best puzzles in Six Inches Under top out at 12.)
That 5% Combat…It’s Over There!
In another directional shift from the original game, you’ll encounter enemies to fight in Six Inches Under, but here they’re hanging out away from the puzzles—that way, they won’t get in your way when you’re focused on figuring out how to fix that lever to connect that battery to power that machinery behind that fence that you’re not quite sure how to get through yet.
And sometimes, the combat is a puzzle of its own too, as you use your pickaxe and other combat tools and abilities in creative ways—but as with any good puzzle, it’s more fun if you figure those out for yourself.
The End is Just Getting Started
You can make it to the finish line of the “main quest” pretty quickly—but once the end credits roll, that signals a whole new beginning. Whole new areas open up to explore full of secrets and surprises. In fact, some of Six Inches Under’s most challenging and rewarding puzzles are entirely optional…including at least one of the team’s rare 12-point-ers. (Hint: Look for the showerhead on the beach.)
It’s a proving ground
Six Inches Under began its life as a project intended to get the Supra Games team up to speed for Supra Games’ next major now-in-development game (and full-on sequel) Supraworld. It quickly turned into a place to experiment, test, and run ideas through the wringer. The result was something unexpected: a content-packed game worthy of standing on its own as something not quite an expansion, not quite a sequel, and infused with the creative spirit indie-developed games are known for.
Supraland: Six Inches Under is out today. Buy it for Xbox One or Xbox Series X|S, or play it on Xbox Game Pass.
Supraland: Six Inches Under
Humble Games
Unearth what’s beneath the surface in Six Inches Under, a new first-person Supraland adventure full of puzzles, exploration, fun secrets to discover, hundreds of gags, and two funny ones!
In the miniature world, the dreaded Rakening has scattered the townspeople of Superland six whole inches below the surface of the sandbox! Fulfill your toybox fantasies as a brave Blue Plumber and use your skill and ingenuity to survive and rescue your fellows. You may be small—but this is bound to be one big adventure.
Underworld exploration
Unearth a connected underworld of toys who’ve survived past calamities. The caverns are filled with secrets to discover and new areas to uncover—once you’ve acquired the right tools and abilities to access them.
First-person puzzling
Solve problems in the environment with brains (and occasional brawn). Use skillful platforming to find secrets and hard to reach areas, and harness the power of physics to find creative ways to overcome obstacles.
It’s a small world
For the people of Supraland, little things make a big difference. Turn a matchstick into the lever that opens a door or a torch that ignites an obstacle. Power mighty machines with the latest AAA battery technology, cross cracks the size of chasms, and walk (literally!) on the razor’s edge.
A great place to dig in
Six Inches Under is a content-packed standalone follow-up (and not quite a sequel) to the original Supraland, designed for everyone! You can delve straight in and have a blast without having played the original.
More Supraland to love
If you dug the original Supraland, you’ll discover tons more of the puzzle-solving, metroidvania-style exploration you loved—plus more skills, a novel new approach to combat, more optional activities, and an original new soundtrack.
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Source: Xbox Blog
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