The Plucky Squire: a storybook hero who leaps from 2D pages into a 3D world

After leaving Pokémon developer Game Freak, artist James Turner wanted to make a game in his own minimal, colorful illustration style. He and longtime friend Jonathan Biddle, living on opposite sides of the world, founded All Possible Futures in 2019; Turner's storybook idea grew into a question: what if the hero could jump out of the page and explore the 3D room around the book — and into other pictures printed on mugs and paper?

A storybook hero who can jump out of his own pages into a 3D world and other illustrations — the book's words and surfaces become playable mechanics.

The team made contrast the concept: flat, simple 2D pages inspired by children's books such as Mr. Men and Miffy sit inside a realistic, beautifully lit 3D room with a Toy Story warmth, and printed surfaces — paper, ceramics, plastic toys — become the worlds Jot leaps into. Unreal Engine kept both worlds alive at once so objects pass between them; puzzles use the physical book (turning and lifting pages) and language (rewording sentences to rewrite outcomes). An Epic MegaGrant helped the small studio fill skill gaps during development.

When the game was first announced, the trailer drew a response that surprised its founders — Biddle said they had feared someone else was building the same idea, but "people really got it." Shipped on September 17, 2024 for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox and Switch, the game was received as one of the year's most charming family adventures; The Verge called it "as cute as it is creative" and pointed to it and Astro Bot as proof that polished all-ages games can come from outside Nintendo.

The Plucky Squire began as an artist's itch. James Turner, who had spent years designing Pokémon at Game Freak, left the company and started drawing a webcomic called Cosmic to fill the void; its characters and ideas later found their way into a bigger vision. Turner wanted a game built on his own minimalist, colorful illustration style, and the format that clicked was a storybook: a book's pages could present a different style of gameplay on every spread — a top-down adventure, a minigame, a choose-your-own-adventure — while exploring the physical object of the book itself.

With co-founder Jonathan Biddle, the idea became something stranger: what if the hero could jump out of the book entirely? The final concept contrasts a simple, colorful 2D storybook world with a realistic, beautifully lit 3D room around it, where characters can also leap into other illustrations printed on mugs, paper and toys. Players turn pages, rearrange the words of sentences to rewrite what happens, and pass objects between dimensions. Unreal Engine let the studio keep both worlds running at once, and an Epic MegaGrant helped the small team cover the craft it lacked.

The announcement trailer earned a reaction that surprised the founders. When The Plucky Squire shipped on September 17, 2024 for PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox and Switch, critics received it as one of the year's most charming family adventures; The Verge praised it as "as cute as it is creative" and cited it, alongside Astro Bot, as proof that polished all-ages games can flourish outside Nintendo, a gap Turner said the industry had under-served.

The two worlds are engineered for maximum contrast — minimalist 2D storybook inside a realistic 3D room — so the jump between dimensions is the wow moment.

Printed surfaces such as paper, mug ceramics and plastic toys become playable worlds, turning the book's physical format into the game's geography.

Language is a mechanic: rewording a sentence changes what happens next, so the story itself becomes the puzzle.

Unreal Engine let a two-founder studio keep both worlds alive at once, and the Epic MegaGrant funded the expertise the team lacked.

Make the medium the mechanic: when your hero lives in a storybook, the pages, the words and the desk outside all become playable space — a format constraint can generate the whole game.

After shipping on September 17, 2024, The Plucky Squire was received as one of the year's most beloved family adventures, part of a strong 2024 slate that also included Astro Bot. Turner told The Verge the reception confirmed a real, under-served audience for polished all-ages games outside Nintendo — "there's a need for them" — and the game fulfilled the studio mission the pair set in 2019: original, beautiful games that cause a stir when the world sees them.