SCHiM

Schim is a platformer in which the player controls a boy and his titular 'schim', a frog-like creature that inhabits his shadow. The game follows the boy through life stages, from youth to study, graduation and entry into a career, then experiencing a series of hardships that lead him to become separated from the schim. Players, in the role of the schim, must travel through shadows across the city to reunite with the man. The game contains 65 levels, with most featuring a similar objective of following the trail of the man as he leaves a scene, controlling the schim by navigating across shadows cast by objects and characters in the environment.

Players control the schim by hopping around shadows. If the player lands outside a shadow, they can briefly perform an additional hop within a small window of time to return to one. Otherwise, players landing outside a shadow return to a checkpoint earlier in the level. In order to progress, players interact with objects or characters they are inside the shadow of by pressing a single button.

Schim was created by Ewoud van der Werf, a Dutch independent developer, and Nils Slijkerman, a member of the game's co-publisher, Extra Nice. Van der Werf created the game's art and programming, and Slijkerman designing the game, levels, narrative and motion capture elements. Van der Werf stated that the game's concept was inspired by memories of playing games with shadows as a child, with the game's title being a Dutch expression for a shadow. This concept was first implemented, with the developers then brainstorming the "general lore (and) rules of the world, the schim characters, and what they mean to the game".

Schim was developed by van der Werf in the Unity engine. The minimalistic line art design of the game, which began their design as silhouettes, were created using custom shaders made by van der Werf. The visual style was influenced by the work of The Adventures of Tintin artist Hergé and Dutch illustrator Joost Swarte, as well as using similar techniques as the video games Sable and Manifold Garden. The game's environments drew from Dutch locations and landmarks, which became a "core ingredient of the game" after positive feedback from playtesters. Van der Werf, who has color blindness, designed the game's visuals with the intent to limit the palette to four colours, although expanded this to each level having a color scheme based on the "time of day, temperature or events in the story".

Schim received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic. Reviewers praised the originality and uniqueness of the game's shadow platforming gameplay, with many critics finding the gameplay and controls simple and accessible. However, other reviewers felt the game was too simplistic to be challenging, or did not clearly communicate the behavior of the shadows. Some critics also considered the gameplay too repetitive across its levels.

Jody Macgregor of PC Gamer considered there to be little content under the game's surface, stating the game was "not hard enough to be a challenge, but not painless enough to be relaxing". Similarly, Mikhail Madnani of Touch Arcade wrote "there really is no evolution of the mechanics over the course of the game".