Roots of Horror: What Inspired The Climb

If you've played our game, you’ll have noticed its quirky mechanics: players escalate by grabbing nodes, spinning aimlessly, and darting in the direction they release. While that’s a humorous way to progress—up a mountain (or hopelessly down)—it also created the perfect mountaineering scenario for a cosmic horror story: a perilous mountain looming with danger.

[h2]H.P. Lovecraft: The Patron of Cosmic Horror[/h2]

When discussing this genre—focused on the mysterious, the unfathomable to the human mind, and the infinite possibilities of the universe—Lovecraft inevitably comes to mind. We drew inspiration from his work when crafting our story’s setting: why not depict the downfall into madness of a once-respected mathematician and college professor?

Lovecraft’s stories often explore the boundary between human knowledge and the unknown—those things we *don't* understand. For him, the greatest fear lies in the stuff beyond our human understanding, regardless of how much we already know. There’s always something bigger. Something BEYOND our comprehension…

Our guiding star? The Mountains of Madness .We wanted to tell a tale where the main character explores a mythological place and confronts its hidden horrors.



[h2]Junji Ito: The Master of the Unsettling[/h2]

Today, Junji Ito is an institution in horror, despite his adorable persona and love for wearing cat paws and ears. He specializes in crafting disturbingly ordinary yet deeply unsettling settings—magnifying humanity’s self-destructive traits and turning protagonists into their own worst enemies.

Because, really, there's no worse evil than our own mind, right? Inspired by Ito’s The Amigara Fault, one of our game’s core features revolves around mental alteration—collecting ‘Eyes’ shifts your perception of reality, revealing a dreadful mountain—and emphasizes the inescapability of deadly destiny.

Coincidence that Ito’s story is also set near a mountain? Definitely not!

[h2]Eldritch Climb: Where Cosmic Horror Meets the Comic[/h2]

Drawing from these two masters, we created a game that messes with your mind cosmically and comically! You’ll uncover the terrifying secrets of the Mountain, encounter its cult and creatures, and—over and over—spin, die, and spin again.