Powerhoof

Factsheet

Developer:
Powerhoof
Based in Melbourne, Australia

Release date:
17 July 2025 (Steam/GoG)
22 June 2026 (Switch/Switch 2)

Platforms:
Windows, Mac, Linux - Steam
Windows, Mac, Linux - GoG
Switch, Switch 2
Playstation // Xbox (Targeting later this year)

Website:
thedriftergame.com

Regular Price:

USD	19.99
GBP	16.75
EURO	19.50
AUD	29.50

Description

A Pulp Adventure Thriller from the minds that brought you Crawl, The Drifter is a fast-paced take on the point and click adventure. With stunningly animated pixel art, optimised both for mouse and gamepad with unique twin-stick controls, The Drifter is an engrossing roller-coaster of a story, drawing on King, Crichton and Carpenter, with a dash of 70s Ozpolitation.

Jumping a box-car back to his home town, Mick Carter is witness to a violent shooting, pursued by hi-tech soldiers, then thrown in a reservoir and drowned... And that's just the start of Mick's problems. Finding himself alive again, seconds before his death, Mick is sucked headfirst into a lunatic web of conspiracy, murder, and the thousand year obsession of a madman.

History

Back in 2002 Dave cut his teeth making indie adventure games with Adventure Game Studio, and over a 15 years later still has a passion for the genre. In 2017 he convinced Barney (the other half of powerhoof), and a group of collaborators to enter Adventure Jam, a narrative focused gamejam, where they've won first place honors three years running. On the back of the success of their thriller entries, Peridium and Alluvium, Powerhoof decided to work on a longer commercial title in the same style.

The Drifter has been in the works since late 2017, starting as a slow-burner side project for Dave, but ramping up to full time production for the team in 2021.

Features

A Pulp Adventure Thriller from the minds that brought you Peridium and Crawl.
An engrossing roller-coaster of a story- Drawing on King, Crichton and Carpenter, with a dash of 70s Aussie grindhouse.
Point 'n Click or Controller- Unique twin-stick controls make The Drifter as comfy to play on the couch as at your PC.
Bursting with raw crunchy pixel art and high-impact animation.
Professionally voice acted, with a brooding dark-synth cinematic score.

Videos

Gameplay and Release Date Trailer YouTube

Launch Trailer YouTube

Grindhouse Trailer YouTube

Images

download all screenshots & photos as .zip (42MB)

Logo & Icon

download logo files as .zip (1MB)

Awards & Recognition

"Winner - Game of the Year" Australian Game Developer Awards, 2025
"Winner - Excellence in Narrative" Australian Game Developer Awards, 2025
"Winner - Excellence in Visual Art" Australian Game Developer Awards, 2025
"Winner - Excellence in Sound Design" Australian Game Developer Awards, 2025
"Winner - 2025 Recipient for ANZ game" Indie Game Awards, 2025
"Winner - Adventure game of the year" AGOTY Awards, 2025
"Winner - Adventure game of the year by international jury" AGOTY Awards, 2025
"Winner - Best Character" AGOTY Awards, 2025
"Winner - Best Adventure game of 2025" The Hotshots (Adventure Game Hotspot Awards), 2025
"Winner - Best gameplay" The Hotshots (Adventure Game Hotspot Awards), 2025
"Winner - Best Classic Styled Adventure" The Hotshots (Adventure Game Hotspot Awards), 2025
"Winner - Best New Character - Mick Carter" The Hotshots (Adventure Game Hotspot Awards), 2025
"Winner - Oustanding Art Direction" Smash Jump Awards, 2025
"Winner - Aussie game of the year" NextPlay Awards, 2025
"Winner - Best Story" AdventureCorner.de Awards, 2025
"Winner - Surprise Hit" AdventureCorner.de Awards, 2025
"Winner - The Guest Plate" Pavs Awards, 2025
"Finalist - Outstanding Achievement in Story " DICE Awards, 2025
"Honorable Mention - Seamus McNally Grand Prize" IGF Awards, 2025
"Honorable Mention - Excellence in Visual Art" IGF Awards, 2025
"Honorable Mention - Excellence in Audio" IGF Awards, 2025
"Finalist - Best narrative" Indie Pearls Awards, 2025
"Finalist - Excellence in Music" Australian Game Developer Awards, 2025
"Finalist - Excellence in Gameplay" Australian Game Developer Awards, 2025
"Runner up - Best Story" The Hotshots (Adventure Game Hotspot Awards), 2025
"Runner up - Best Graphics" The Hotshots (Adventure Game Hotspot Awards), 2025
"Runner up - Best Music" The Hotshots (Adventure Game Hotspot Awards), 2025
"Runner up - Best Voice Acting " The Hotshots (Adventure Game Hotspot Awards), 2025
"Runner up - Best Scifi" The Hotshots (Adventure Game Hotspot Awards), 2025
"Finalist - Narrative" Indie Game Awards, 2025
"Finalist - Best independent" Smash Jump Awards, 2025
"Finalist - Outstanding Story and Narrative" Smash Jump Awards, 2025
"Finalist - The Smashy (Game of the Year)" Smash Jump Awards, 2025
"Finalist - Best Puzzles" AGOTY Awards, 2025
"Finalist - Best OST, Effects and Dubbing" AGOTY Awards, 2025
"Runner up - Adventure of the year" AdventureCorner.de Awards, 2025
"Runner up - est Soundtrack" AdventureCorner.de Awards, 2025
"Third place - Best Graphics" AdventureCorner.de Awards, 2025

Monetization Permission

Powerhoof allows for the contents of The Drifter to be published through video broadcasting services for any commercial or non-commercial purposes. Monetization of videos created containing assets from The Drifter is legally & explicitly allowed by Powerhoof. This permission can be found in writing at https://www.powerhoof.com/press/sheet.php?p=The+Drifter.

Additional Links

Peridium
Free Adventure Jam game by the same team https://powerhoof.itch.io/peridium.

Alluvium
Free Adventure Jam game by the same team https://powerhoof.itch.io/alluvium.

Telwynium
Free Adventure Jam series by the same team https://powerhoof.itch.io/alluvium.

PowerQuest
Free adventure game creation tool, developed by the team alongside The Drifter https://powerhoof.itch.io/powerquest.

About Powerhoof

Boilerplate
Powerhoof is a two man independent games studio located in Melbourne, Australia. While both tinker in all aspects of game development, Barney Cumming is the preeminent artist and animator, and Dave Lloyd's background is in programming.

Their first project was Crawl - The dungeon crawler where your friends control the monsters. This was followed up by Regular Human Basketball, a multiplayer party-starter (no giant mechanical death-machines here), and pulp adventure thriller The Drifter - as wells as a plethora of smaller free titles.

Both members of the duo now have a pet project they're currently working on - Barney with Acid Knife, and Dave with The Telwynium.

More information
More information on Powerhoof, our logo & relevant media are available here.