Fixing (For) A Hole: Cavern Kings
Rocks and shotguns, at least
As we sit in the RPS chatroom, picking through each day's new selection of games in which you play a coma patient, something simple, explosive, videogamey can feel like a breath of fresh air. Cavern Kings is a forced-descent infinite action platformer inspired by Super Crate Box and Risk of Rain, in which there are spinning blades to dodge, giant worms to defeat, and a destructible floor to tunnel into deeper and deeper.
There's a trailer below that appropriately sells its simple charms, and a download link for a public beta. It's on Kickstarter too, though already almost halfway towards its minor $2,500 goal.
The Kickstarter page is similarly straightforward, bulletpointing the game's features: four playable characters, randomized terrain and monsters, powerups which stack infinitely. The developer estimates that the game is already 80% complete, but the Kickstarter money will be used to pay for music and art by other people. There's also mention of stretch goals, though none are yet detailed on the Kickstarter page.
As always, the best thing: there's a public beta you can play right now. Its feels are a little shy of Vlambeery, but it's energetic and varied. I suggest running it fullscreen, lest your frantic clicking cause you to repeatedly unfocus the window and die. I learned this the hard way.
