Adventure · January 30, 2013
Proteus (2013)
Proteus is a game about exploration and immersion in a dream-like island world where the soundtrack to your play is created by your surroundings. Played in first-person, the primary means of interaction is simply your presence in the world and how you observe it. The procedurally generated islands are home to creatures natural and imagined, tranquil valleys and ruins with magical properties. Key Features: Meditative play: the responsive world and lack of any text or hints distils an essence of curious, investigative play, and rewards patience and immersion. Dynamic soundtrack composed by award-winning musician David Kanaga follows the mood of the world and will appeal to fans of Boards of Canada, Brian Eno. A distinctive 2D-but-3D graphical style with wild shifting palettes that sits somewhere between 8-bit videogames and early 20th century modernist painting. Islands are uniquely generated every time, and although it's theoretically possible to see everything in one playthrough, no-one ever does. Built-in 'postcard' function encodes world data into each screenshot, allowing islands and discoveries to be saved and shared.
Adventure releases from 2013
29 Adventure titles launched in 2013 — top 6 by review volume.
Peer Adventure titles
Comparable titles in the same genre and review-volume band — ranked by Steam positive percentage.
Community Tag Signals
Tag weights reflect how many Steam users voted each descriptor — larger pills = stronger consensus.
- Exploration · 266
- Walking Simulator · 225
- Relaxing · 223
- Indie · 221
- Casual · 173
- Procedural Generation · 138
- Experimental · 115
- First-Person · 114
- Beautiful · 85
- Adventure · 82
- Atmospheric · 70
- Singleplayer · 57
- Great Soundtrack · 53
- Pixel Graphics · 49
- Open World · 39
Position in Adventure
| Metric | This title | Genre position |
|---|---|---|
| Review volume | 2.7k Steam reviews | Top 77% in Adventure |
| Positive rating | 76% positive | Genre average: 87% — this title sits in top 89% |
| Metacritic | 80/100 | Genre average 77 — top 44% of Adventure titles |
| Engagement hours | 1 h average | Top 98% for session depth among Adventure |
Reception Metrics
Steam community
76%Mostly Positive · 2.7k reviews
2.1k positive · 658 negative
Metacritic
80/100 critic aggregate
Metacritic user score
5.6/10
Curator recommendations
1.4k
Press Quotes
“In a way, its lack of progression – the absence of skill trees, difficulty levels and save points – works in its favour; you won’t dive back in to mop up the last few achievements, or to climb leaderboards, but simply because you want to play Proteus. Because you want to open your eyes and be up to your waist in seawater, to walk to shore and wander through fields that sing. And that’s an itch only Proteus can scratch.”…
Release & Availability
| Release date | Jan 30, 2013 |
|---|---|
| Developer | Ed Key and David Kanaga |
| Publisher | Twisted Tree |
| Base price | $4.99 -50% |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| Estimated owners | 100k–1M |
| External links | Official site · Metacritic page · Support · [email protected] |
Engagement Profile
All-time avg
1h
brief (under 5 hours)
Median
0h
Typical completion time
Features & Capabilities
Input & Comfort
- Full controller support
Other
- Single-player
- Family Sharing
Editions & Packages
Buy Proteus