Glitchy aesthetics. Literally collapsing menu boxes. The game taunting you by “possessing” your Steam friends. Technical tricks of this nature may sound gimmicky in 2026, but they felt excitingly unorthodox a decade ago, when Pony Island came out to critical acclaim.

Fans of Daniel Mullins, the celebrated indie developer of Inscryption, will be forgiven for forgetting that Pony Island 2: Panda Circus is in active development. After all, it’s been almost three years since the announcement – and a full decade since it was first teased as an Easter egg in Pony Island’s ARG (Alternate Reality Game) – with only a single trailer and a bunch of tunes from the soundtrack released to the public.

While the announcement trailer teases the return of endless-runner sequences and glitchy menus, Panda Circus is seemingly a far bigger and more complicated project than its predecessor; hence the 3D landscapes, pixel art JRPG sequences and even apparent nods to games such as The Case of the Golden Idol. Which is why Mullins claims that, at least in terms of gameplay variety, Panda Circus is closer to The Hex and Inscryption than the original game.

“[Pony Island 2] is multifaceted in its gameplay and wide-ranging in its influences. But this time the disparate game systems are united by more common elements,” he says, referencing the drag-and-drop “hacking” puzzle. “That simple premise was extended into an endless amount of blocks and holes of various descriptions.”

The plot sees a historical warrior who was slain on his crusade and was damned to hell, where he’s tormented by a video games-making Lucifer. This comically morbid tale “is the strongest link to its predecessor” from a narrative standpoint – although, we’re told, this warrior won’t be Theodore (Pony Island’s protagonist), but a different ancient crusader.

In the gameplay that we do get to glimpse in the trailer, the player and his furry companion are traversing through the top-down map, visiting villages and places of interest. It plays like “Oregon Trail through medieval China”, Mullins says after I mention noticing hunger and thirst bars. All this is happening while you’re being tormented by lordly King Yan, the Chinese god of death, played by voice actor SungWon Cho in lavish full-motion interludes.

Other sections promise different mythological themes and menacing deities – an overarching structure that will be familiar to those who played Inscryption. Then there is the Earth Prison, a three-dimensional hub that our hell-bound protagonist can explore, accessing different chapters by using what seems to be a mythical USB stick.

If the devil is truly in the details, Mullins gives him plenty of places to hide: Panda Circus seems to be brimming with them. “There is an almost unmanageable number of bespoke, one-off game systems,” he says. “It’s too big to fit in my mind now and that is a new challenge.”

The indie dev admits he would have “been troubled” if he knew just how long it would take to make Panda Circus – even with a handpicked team of collaborators. “I’m very lucky because it was a total chance that we started working together,” Mullins says about composer Jonah Senzel, whom he has worked with ever since the original Pony Island. “He turned out to be a genius.”

While Mullins shies away from showing any new piece of gameplay, Panda Circus, now in its “final stretch” phase of development, is undergoing private beta. As for the release date: “it may become public knowledge soon,” he hints coyly.

Bombastic boss battles, an ARG that will see fans dissecting previous games with archaeological zeal (“I bet they’ll crack it in a couple weeks,” Mullins quips), and meta moments that wink at you cheekily are all to be expected from the developer’s most ambitious project to date.

“All the time has gone into making a big game that’s just downright turgid with secrets. There are worlds within worlds and layers upon layers.” Another classic Mullins joint, then, and we couldn’t be more ready.

Pony Island 2: Panda Circus is in development for PC with plans for Linux/Mac “not long after”.