1. Cryptmaster
  2. News

Cryptmaster News

Typing dungeon crawler Cryptmaster's demo is a delight

One of the best things in games is the freeform ability to type commands for another character, then having them respond with voiced dialogue recognising your weird directions. That's one of the joys of Cryptmaster, an upcoming typing-driven dungeon crawler where one of the first things you can do in the demo is get your disembodied necromancer pal to lick a mysterious metal object to help identify it (it's a helmet). He's like if Hand Of Fate's dastardly dealer was a bit of a dingus and also your only hope of escaping the underworld. I love this guy.


Read more

Steam Next Fest - Environment Teaser

Hey doomed souls,

My minions have told me they are ready with the environmental teaser. I hope you are ready to look deeper into my crypts at some of the dark secrets it may hold.

https://youtu.be/KGlGyVv2jUo

Come see some of the mysterious locales that you will find in my tomb. You will find many. If you are interested in my crypts, I may give it to you for a million souls including yours. Heheh

Tomorrow my minions get together to play a Cryptmaster D&D session on Steam.

- Cryptmaster

Development Stream - Friday 10am PST

Hey doomed souls,

Thank you for visiting my very welcoming crypts. It’s so welcoming that when souls enter they never leave. You will enjoy the not so friendly locals of toads, ghouls and more that will battle you where you will use your words in advantageous ways to survive my crypts.

One of my minions Buddy, the Head of Marketing at Akupara Games, is going to give a deeper look at my crypts. He will use his words in commanding ways to survive my crypts. I’ll be watching and taking notes on how I could make the souls who enter suffer more. Hehe

Watch his adventure with me on the Cryptmaster Steam page on Friday at 10am PST.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1885110/Cryptmaster/

- Cryptmaster

D&D Cryptmaster stream - Thursday 10am PST

Hey doomed souls,

Thank you for visiting my very welcoming crypts. It’s so welcoming that when souls enter they never leave. You will enjoy the not-so-friendly locals of toads, ghouls and more that will battle you where you will use your words in advantageous ways to survive my crypts.

It seems that my minions have prepared a little game in honor of the crypts I have been constructing. This Dragons and Dungeons or D&D as some souls call it will be quite interesting as some of the spectacles have never played D&D before. I’m sure their cute little crypts won’t stand up to my amazing crypts but I’ll keep an eye on their little adventure.

Watch their adventure with me on the Cryptmaster Steam page on Thursday at 10am PST.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1885110/Cryptmaster/

- Cryptmaster

Steam Next Fest Cryptmaster Dev Log

Hey doomed souls,

The developers of Cryptmaster, Lee Williams and Paul Hart appeared to have escaped my crypts and have said that they would only continue working in my tomb only if they were allowed to speak about what is going on in a dev log. I reluctantly agreed to their terms so here is Lee and Paul to answer a few questions.

Keep your boney eyes peeled…Tomorrow I have a special video coming out to showcase some more of the wastelands around my crypts.

[h2]Dev log[/h2]
[h3]What was your inspiration for Cryptmaster?[/h3]

Cryptmaster is the result of a whole jumble of inspirations, many of which only became apparent as we were making it. Mechanically, there are touches of classic dungeon crawlers, puzzle games, word-based games like Scribblenauts and RPGs. In theme and aesthetic, we drew from a lot of the passions of our younger selves, things which are now kind of nostalgic: D&D, Fighting Fantasy, B-movies, board games…

Two key influences were the VHS board game Atmosfear and the TV show Knightmare. We were fortunate enough to get Hugo Myatt, who presented the latter, to provide some voice-over for the game!

[h3]Any funny bugs you would like to share?[/h3]

There have been heaps. Endlessly spawning crabs, over-enthusiastic ragdolling, unsolvable puzzles. Some of them even stayed in the game, like the Cryptmaster's tendency to keep trying to look at the thing he's holding while he's talking to you.

[h3]What has been your favorite moment(s) in developing Cryptmaster so far?[/h3]

The whole process has been a lot of fun. Just coming up with crazy ideas and seeing what sticks. That's the joy of a small team really. Hopefully some of that joy and playfulness will be transmitted to the players.

[h3]What are some tips you can give to people looking to design games?[/h3]

Just go for it. Start making games, joining game jams, getting to know how things work. Embrace failure and you'll always be learning.

[h3]What is something you have learned in developing Cryptmaster?[/h3]

The whole thing has been a learning process. There are things we'd do differently if we were to make it again but then we wouldn't have the game we have now, so maybe that's a good thing!

[h3]Is there a “secret word” that players should say to the Cryptmaster when they play the demo?[/h3]

The Cryptmaster is a keen player of ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS. He can also be persuaded to indulge in a spot of ASMR. Really, I'd encourage players to experiment - we have a LOT of responses in there!

If you would like to try your luck on my crypts, the demo is available right now for you to try. heheheh