Updated

Severed, the next project from Guacamelee developer DrinkBox Studios, has been pushed back from its original release date as its creators plan to "take a few additional months for playtesting."

Initially slated for a summer release, Severed will now premiere toward the tail end of 2015 or early 2016.

"The good news is that Severed is days away from hitting Alpha!" DrinkBox stated in an update sent to press contacts today. "The bad news is the game won't be out this summer as we had previously expected. Severed is a really different game from anything we've made before and we want to take a few additional months for playtesting and tuning so that we can make it the best game it can be."

Severed is a first-person dungeon crawler for the PlayStation Vita controlled entirely via gestures. Players tap and swipe the Vita's touchscreen in order to navigate environments, uncover secrets, and battle enemy creatures they encounter.

Severed's combat system has its own unique quirks, giving players the ability to deliver stabs, swipes, and slashes via appropriate gestures. Players can also block enemy attacks and perform counters with similar inputs, and special attacks can be unleashed through complex movements learned throughout the game's non-linear quest.

DrinkBox's last project, Guacamelee, was a side-scrolling action-adventure game in the vein of Nintendo's Metroid and latter-day Castlevania sequels. Taking control of a masked luchador wrestler, players traversed environments inspired by Mexican culture and folklore, acquiring moves along the way in order to access new areas.

Following up on its initial launch for the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita, Guacamelee was later expanded and re-released for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii U, and PC platforms as Guacamelee: Super Turbo Championship Edition.

DrinkBox's previous projects include the PlayStation 3 platformer Tales From Space: About a Blob and its follow-up Tales From Space: Mutant Blobs Attack, which premiered for a number of platforms including the PS Vita, Xbox 360, and PCs.

A new release date for Severed is not yet known.