Shark Jump Reveals Winds of Viridia, a Grapple-and-Glide Adventure for Switch 2
Shark Jump's debut action-adventure sends players into a valley ruled by a towering tree, with a demo live now and a 2027 launch on Switch 2 and PC.
Nintendo's October 2026 Indie World Showcase delivered a genuine surprise in its final minutes: a debut trailer for Winds of Viridia, a new action-adventure game from the small Australian studio Shark Jump. The announcement came with a free demo available immediately on both Nintendo Switch 2 and Steam, and a confirmed early 2027 window for the full release.
It's a significant jump in scale for the studio, whose back catalog looks nothing like a fully-scored, boss-filled console adventure.
A Debut From a Small Studio
Shark Jump's back catalog, visible on its own YouTube channel, consists mostly of lightweight mobile releases like Castle Fusion and Hotel Slime Clicker. Winds of Viridia is a different proposition entirely: a handcrafted, boss-driven adventure built for Switch 2 and PC, developed alongside Matt Trobbiani, who is also credited as a developer on the project.
The studio's own game site describes the project simply as an invitation to "explore the wild unknown," with no release date beyond the early 2027 window Shark Jump gave during the showcase. Shark Jump's YouTube channel has been active since 2014, and until this reveal its most-viewed uploads were trailers for small mobile titles like Castle Fusion and Hotel Slime Clicker, a scale of project far removed from a fully orchestrated console and PC adventure.
Exploring the Valley of the Grantree
Winds of Viridia drops players into a valley dominated by a single towering tree, the Grantree, and tasks them with discovering why its creatures have been driven into a violent "wild frenzy." According to the official Steam and Nintendo store listings, the world is built from handcrafted mountain glades, hidden grottos and ancient ruins rather than a procedurally generated map.
Movement is built around momentum: running, sliding, flipping and grappling let players close distance on enemies or vault over the valley's obstacles, with a glide-and-launch system that keeps exploration moving quickly between its handmade locations.
A Mothbug Companion and Relic-Powered Combat
Players aren't alone in the valley. A companion creature called the Mothbug assists in both exploration and combat, helping track down the frenzied beasts scattered across the map. Nintendo's own store listing confirms boss fights sit at the center of the experience, backed by a customization system built around relics.
- Totems can be assembled from collected relics to change combat abilities and playstyle
- A central Sanctuary hub serves as the game's upgrade point between expeditions
- Combat is framed around large, frenzied beasts rather than smaller enemy swarms
That totem system gives Winds of Viridia a build-crafting layer that's unusual for an indie action-adventure of its size, and it's likely to be the area Shark Jump leans on hardest as the game approaches its 2027 release.
An Orchestral Score From Penkin and Larkin
Winds of Viridia's most eye-catching credential may not be its gameplay at all. Both the official site and the Nintendo and Steam listings confirm an orchestral score composed by Kevin Penkin and Christopher Larkin, two names with real weight in game music: Penkin's credits include Made in Abyss and Tales of Arise, while Larkin scored Hollow Knight and the long-awaited Hollow Knight: Silksong.
Pairing two composers of that profile with a first major release from a small studio is a strong signal of how seriously Shark Jump is treating the project, and it should give the valley of the Grantree a soundtrack well above what a reveal trailer alone can usually promise.
Demo Live Now, Full Release Due in Early 2027
Unlike many showcase reveals, Winds of Viridia didn't arrive as a distant tease. A playable demo is already live on both the Nintendo Switch 2 eShop and Steam, letting players test the movement and early combat well ahead of launch. Neither storefront lists a firm release date yet beyond "early 2027," and pricing hasn't been announced on either platform.
Nintendo's own Switch 2 listing fills in some of the practical details: the game supports TV, tabletop and handheld play for a single player, saves to Nintendo Switch Online's cloud backup, carries an ESRB rating for violence, and ships with a wide spread of language options that includes British English, French, German, Japanese, Korean and both Simplified and Traditional Chinese. The current digital listing puts the download at under 8GB, modest for a game built around handcrafted exploration rather than an open world.
For a studio stepping up from mobile-scale releases to a fully orchestrated console and PC adventure, getting a demo into players' hands this early is a notable show of confidence. With a full year of visibility ahead of its eventual launch window, Winds of Viridia is now one of the more interesting small-studio bets coming out of Nintendo's indie pipeline.
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Sam writes about small studios and the games they ship against the odds, and turns the hardest parts of them into guides that get to the point.
