The Crevice

[proven mulch]

I'm working on a cave exploration roguelite game called The Crevice. The idea is to emphasize exploring the caves over combat - even though it also is an option you'll probably need to resort to at times. The game has a somewhat wacky physics based locomotion and I want to put some emphasis on enemies and other things having a fun physical, meaty feel to them.

Despite all the silliness and fun the game is pretty creepy. There's something in that combination of janky physical comedy and dark atmosphere that just tickles me!

https://vxtwitter.com/antti_tiihonen/status/1722168803524595785

It's still early days of development but I'm already committed enough that I put up a Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2676110/The_Crevice/

Steam

The Crevice

Survival is paramount in The Crevice, a roguelite journey where every step you take could be your last. Equip yourself with a limited inventory of gear and items, and face the unknown as you encounter menacing creatures that lurk in the shadows. Climb on treacherous cliffs and squeeze through narrow passages and navigate through an ever-changing...

Release Date

To be announced

▶ Play video

The most recent addition I made was some amoebas! The plan is that the amoeba will split apart when taking damage in a somewhat classic slime blob enemy style.
https://youtu.be/ef35625h4Z4

[stone root]

This looks brilliant! Love the way the character and the ropes move

would love to try a demo (Mac) if you want some feedback

[proven mulch]

Thanks! It's a little early for bigger feedback rounds right now. It needs a little bit more meat around its bones before I scale up the testing efforts but I'll drop a line here when the time comes 🙂

[proven mulch]

Just messing around with physics ropes
https://youtube.com/shorts/Ef7fpeAHdSw?feature=share

[gaunt bane]

Looks great!!

[proven mulch]

Thanks!

[frail crane]

This is looking cool! Really like the visuals and atmosphere. Are you set on the direction for soundeffects or are those mostly placeholders atm? Those kinda take me out of it a bit - everything is so successfully creepy and then the sound effects feel very comical and casual for the player movement and damage.

Love the concept, very cool. The black on lighter background s awesome and the branches sticking out look really good.

[proven mulch]

Thanks. Oh yeah the sound effects are placeholders from an old project that was robot puzzle game. Replacing those has been sitting on my todo-list for a while... 😀

[proven mulch]

https://youtube.com/shorts/4F_vAy03ndM

I made a biome system. It's driven by a bitmap that defines the areas each biome occupies in the world (the overall layout of the world is mostly static). The biomes define how the terrain inside it is generated, what tilemaps it uses and what scenes can be spawned as monsters/items/props

[proven mulch]

I was asked about player's goals elsewhere and here's my thoughts on that:

I have some ideas in mind for mid-term goals at least. There are some obstacles in the game world that the player initially can't overcome. Things that require advanced climbing techniques or terrain modification that are not initially possible. Player needs to gather resources for upgrades or reach specific places or do certain things to get the means to overcome the obstacles and some creative problem solving may also be required. A lot of principles from metroidvania progression there I suppose but I think it should fit OK if I can make the obstacle solving systems an integral part of the rest of the core gameplay (handling enemies, exploring caves, taking names).

As for an actual end goal or what motivates the player or the character to do anything and how all of this is communicated to the player I have no idea yet!

On a more general level I want to keep the whole game experience kinda tight instead of trying to offer endless gameplay with endless challenges like a lot of the roguelites out there do.

[topaz flicker]

Curious- Is this procedurally generated or handmade? Or, if it's one of them now, do you plan on having it be the other for production release?

It looks like it's either just handmade prototype maps or noise textures, can't tell which

[proven mulch]

It’s a combination! 🙂

Noise is influenced by handmade ”density” map

And there’s that handmade biome map too which is used in tandem too which dictates what the noise parameters are and such

With the density map I can make sure there is always a ”critical path” open for the player and I can use it to provide other structure too like more solid walls to isolate areas or areas with more or less space within a single biome. Those features are always in a static position between the runs but I’m okay with there being some permanence that the player can learn.

[topaz flicker]

That's a sharp way of doing things. I'm starting work on my procedural generation system soon here, it's encouraging to see others have success with it in Godot

[desert mango]

this looks extremely funny and also horrifying

[proven mulch]

Thanks. That’s the vibe I’m going for 😀

[sand sage]

Looks great. How did u create the visuals? is that handrawn? Have u also used a tileset or just draw the entire scene?

[proven mulch]

Hand drawn sprites but it’s fairly simple stuff since it’s mostly just silhouettes. The environment is a tileset with some sprites (rocks, plants and such) scattered on the terrain to break the repetitive tilemaps a little. Then there’s lighting and fog particles that do their part in tying it all together 🙂

[sand sage]

ah ok great! On wishlist already! Best of luck!

[proven mulch]

Thanks! Much appreciated

[proven mulch]

https://youtu.be/F8gPlw6myA8
New:
🔊1st proper pass on sounds
💡Smooth transition of vfx+lighting between caves & surface
💣Items can be collected & used. Ropes last as long as you don't lose 'em!
🤷‍♂️Other things I've probably forgotten?

[proven mulch]

Made a minimap to ease the navigation a bit.
https://youtu.be/u9RcUEANS0s

[fluid laurel]

that minimap looks awesome. what was your method? did you generated the minimap when game starts as image or you just do some clever raycasting to map the minimap?

[proven mulch]

Thanks! It's generated realtime at a radius around the player so it'll stay updated if the terrain is destroyed or modified. The data comes directly from the Godot Tilemaps I use and I query them somewhat similar to a raycast using an algorithm meant to plot pixel lines (Bresenham's algorithm). So for each ray I query the line's points' coordinates (that match to the tilemap) and step through them starting from the player until I hit a wall or the maximum range of the ray

[fluid laurel]

u have a number of rays* or just few that spins around?

[proven mulch]

16 evenly divided rays during a frame (physics process)

[fluid laurel]

i see. pretty clever