itch.io

I believe there is a bug in the trade/inventory menus right now.  When you search a corpse, if it has gold, it will show on the bottom in the action log.  You will automatically pick it up.

Yes, it seemed to prevent me from pushing at first.  But I went left, and then came back, tried again, and it worked. Not sure if I was just not touching the block perhaps, or if it was a bug.  I did make it through to the end though.  Neat game!

Never mind!  It worked.  I just walked back up to it and pressed enter and it worked.  Strange!

Neat game with some cool puzzles!  I think the attic might be bugged, because I could not push the box through the doors.  It gets stuck on the door tile...

Incredible work!

It's beautiful, but too hard! :)

I am planning on a relatively short Early Access period of about six months.  It will depend a lot on the kind of feedback I get and what players really want to see happen with the game (and how that aligns with my own vision of the game).  

Ah, thanks so much!  I had to uncheck a "disable downloads" button that I forgot about.  Should be available now.

Beautiful! 

Early Access release is today :)

Oh nice, I need to try this!

Interesting attack mechanic!  Very different.

What started as a three day game jam project, has turned into a little over a year's worth of development and early access release.  Cyclopean began as a simple, roguelike dungeon crawler, but it is now a full fledged, traditional CRPG in the style of Ultima, Questron and Legacy of the Ancients.  



In this monochromatic rendering of H. P. Lovecraft's underworld, you have to manage your gold, health and sanity in order to traverse the dark underbelly of the Dreamlands.  

https://schmidt-workshops.itch.io/cyclopean-the-great-abyss

I am a solo game developer, working on games that I have always dreamed about.  I hope you will consider trying it out.  The free demo is available right now, and the Early Access release will be Friday, January 17th.  

Why thank you!

Happy to hear it!  They are definitely different games in many ways, despite both being grid based dungeon crawlers.

Thanks!

Early Access is coming soon!  Release date scheduled this Friday, January 17th

Kind of Marioesque RPG, I like it!

Thanks for the suggestions!  I do have a habit of going back to my older games and fixing things.  After I release Cyclopean, I am planning to do some work on this, so hopefully I will be able to implement some of these things.

Thanks for reaching out!  There are no updates scheduled right now, and the game is basically finished.  However, I am working on getting languages other than English to work on the side.  No guarantee that I will actually accomplish that though!  

With that said, I am always open to hearing suggestions.  Sometimes, if it is relatively easy, I will still update the game with a good idea.

Steam is probably the one I will update fastest, just because that's where I have an active testing community.  But don't hesitate to remind me if you want the GOG or Itch versions updated ... sometimes I do forget.

Such a cool sandbox right now!  I am very impressed.  

Okay, I think I've figured it out.  I just uploaded a new version of the game.  The filename ends with "_ITCH.exe" - I have removed the old version so that should be the only one there.  If you download the new version it should not try to connect with Steam.  

Sorry for the inconvenience!  Thanks a lot actually, I was not aware of this issue.  If you would like, I can send you a Steam key for the game too.  But let me know if the issues is resolved on your end first. 

Beautiful!

Wow.  So simple yet depressing and thought provoking.  Love it!

I'm wondering, perhaps Steam has to be installed for it to work.  I never had any trouble running it outside of Steam, but maybe it's an issue when there is no Steam on the computer.  I will have to test that ... that could effect my other games too.  

Just to check, do you have Steam installed on your computer?

Interesting!  I will see if I can fix that.  

It's just me trying to make things look as good as I can in a 20 year old game engine :)
I don't think there is a name for it. I included some special shaders like the posterizing effect and non-filtered textures to give it a 90s aesthetic.  I guess it is kind of like a colorful boomer shooter style, but with exploration as the focus instead of combat?  But I've been working on it since 2013 so I was not trying to make a boomer shooter, as the term did not exist back then.  I think the 90s thing was something that was bound to come back in one form or another.

It's based on the "Dreamquest of Unknown Kadath" but the part about taking "herbs" is also mentioned in "The Silver Key" and "Celephais" where people are trying to stay asleep longer to accomplish something in a dream state...

Thank you!  Yes, I am in the process of giving the player multiple options when it comes to encounters.  "Drugged isekai" is a new concept for me too.  I guess that is what the game is about, but I just took it from Lovecraft's stories :)

Absolutely gorgeous look and overall execution!  I was unable to use the pickup items button (P) to pick up the ammo.  Maybe I don't understand the interface enough yet.  I will try again tomorrow and pay closer attention to the tutorial :)

Thanks for the positive feedback!  I am planning on doing a full release of this game some time over the summer.  I really like how it simplifies the dungeon crawler experience and I want to see if I can refine and improve on that.  But I am also thinking about a sequel that would be more of a full scale, open world RPG.  So hopefully lots of news coming about this in the future.  

I guess I'm a bug magnet.  Maybe that explains why my own games are full of them too! :)

Yes, I totally should have made a different looking exit door!  Thanks for the feedback :)

I mean any 3D game engine should be able to do this.  Whichever engine you are familiar with would be the best...

Yes!  Wonderful.  

This is done in 3D Gamestudio.  But I would not necessarily recommend using this engine.

Thanks!  I am exploring the aesthetics of my earliest memories of computers...

The thing about the year a town is founded is a newer feature.  It is not really meant to be the only piece of evidence to use, but you would line it up with others, like the latitude/longitude, or being nearby other aberrations/events. 

I do like the idea of a list of towns ... I will have to think about that. 

About the dogs ... each kind of monster has a slightly different behavior pattern.  So as you play, you will unlock lore that gives some hints about how things work.  The lore will stay through multiple plays, so it serves as a kind of meta-progression.  Sometimes you will need to take a wild guess as to where a monster is located.  Over time you will learn about the best ways to guess each monster and get skilled at tracking them down.  

Games are supposed to be relatively short so you can get more skilled with each playthrough. 

Overall look and feel of this entry are nice, it feels like a dungeon crawler with a weird, futuristic setting, which is unusual (unusual being good).  

The intro and backstory are phenomenal.  There is a lot to say about providing an interesting backdrop for a game.  I rather liked the monochrome approach of the intro and key art, and felt the game itself could have benefited from this idea.