Screenbound [Preview]: Dual screen experiences

Small screens and big worlds combine together in a unique platforming experience

Super Paper Mario, The Witness and Fez all occupy a similar space in my head, a space that focuses on game worlds that require shifting vantage points and a surprising amount of trust by us to make sure that we’re confident in our actions. Is the move we’re about to make going to lead to the next step, or to some complete fall off of an edge, or a heavy mistake in a puzzle? And are we going to miss something if we suddenly change that view to try and move forward?

Screenbound, from developers Crescent Moon Games and Radical Forge, has us both staring at a small Gameboy Color style device with a 2D platformer on its tiny screen and large 3D platforming space in our main view — and at the same time. Innovative puzzle indies are always something we look forward to at the Day of the Devs area at Summer Game Fest, and this one stood out.

As we move through an area in one view, our character in the other view reacts to their world accordingly. Jump in 3D and we jump in 2D. Move left in 2D and we move backwards in 3D. It’s just a matter of where our eyes are pointing that determines what we’re actually moving. And that’s easy enough, and kind of feels like moving in two dimensions in a 3D world when we do, but it’s the actual bouncing between the two to solve puzzles that has us intrigued.

For example, we see just a brick wall in the 2D plane but in 3D we see a doorway that we can walk through, or we see a wide gap in 3D but in 2D there are actually platforms we can land on, likely just slivers in space that are invisible to our naked eyes. And then there are shadows that lead to treasures, platforms off to the side, arches, and more that are visible in one but not the other, making the game more horizontal rather than just forward and vertical. It’s a bit astounding, to be honest, to see how the game is designed to let us traverse whichever view we’re more comfortable in until we come across some obstacle, although it does seem a little more biased to the 3D platforming than the smaller screen.

We had our hands-on just the opening area, learning the basics of traversal as we make our way to a goal at the end, so it’ll be interesting to see if the game can manage to continuously surprise us with how it balances both views and how we interact with the worlds to solve its puzzles.

Screenbound is currently listed with a September 10, 2026 release date.