Previews// PAX Round-Up: Chasm and Cloud Grove

Chris O'Regan, host of The Sausage Factory podcast (which takes a deep dive into the development process with games studios, you should listen to it), has travelled to the future to sample the games that will be interfering with your older brain. When we say the future, we mean PAX Prime. When we say 'interfering with your older brain', that is exactly what we mean. Read on for what he found...


Chasm
Developer: Discord Games
Format(s): Windows PC, Mac, Linux & PS4

Many eons ago I played an adventure game on my friend's Toshiba HX-10 MSX computer. It was called The Maze of Gallious and it was a side-scrolling platform adventure game where you had to explore a vast network of caverns and tunnels in order to escape it. It was a glorious thing and a game few people talk about to this day, yet its spirit can clearly be seen in games like Spelunky, Castlevania, Metroid and now Chasm.

Chasm is a 2D platform adventure game that boasts the pixel style that has become increasingly popular of late. The big difference here is the increased frames of animation and almost limitless sprites that can appear on the screen. Don't be fooled folks, Chasm may seem to be somewhat like a 16 bit game, but I can assure you no machine from that era would have a hope in hell of reproducing these level of graphic fidelity. Just watch a Let's Play video of a SNES game and you'll see why this is.

The player takes on the role of Daltyn, a soldier who is sent to investigate why a mining town has fallen silent recently. Upon arriving at the town he finds it has been cut off from the rest of world by supernatural forces. Sadly he finds himself trapped and unable to call for back-up and what would be a useful entire battalion of soldiers along with heavy artillery. So he goes into the mine to find out what's causing this to happen, on his own. Clearly Daltyn isn't terribly smart or just brave. Oh no wait, he's both!

Chasm is currently in very early development as Discord Games has only just constructed the base engine within which they plan to pour content. The build I played at PAX Prime 2015 had all the features present, including inventory and levelling-up mechanics, but little in the way of maps and levels.

As I ran through the dungeon my mind flashed back to Maze of Gallious as I tried to dodge creatures and other hazards while trying to get to key points in the map. I found Chasm to have very responsive controls, which is vital for a good adventure platformer game. While I wasn't terribly good at it, I could only blame my own ineptitude and not Chasm for when I took a fall into a lava pit. This is what I call the Spelunky effect in that it is the player's fault for failure and not the game itself.

Chasm will boast a procedurally-generated map builder that will ensure each play-through will never be the same, providing that ever important New Game Plus feel to the proceedings. From what I experienced of it I personally am looking forward to its release.

Chasm is due to arrive on Windows PC, Mac, Linux and PS4 sometime in 2016.

Cloud Grove
Developer: Bromoco Games
Format(s): Windows PC, Mac & Linux

As much as I love flying through space in a self-modified spaceship or shooting people in the face with a pair of guns strapped to my boots, there are times when I just want to settle down and try to exercise my brain for a bit. It's times like that when I reach for a title like Cloud Grove.

Cloud Grove is a puzzle game that has the player drowning trees within a set pattern across a grid of squares. The area is displayed isometrically with some trees littered across it.

As with any good puzzle game the method of play is quite simple. You select a tree and from it a well spring of water appears and all of the squares that are orthagonal to it also change into water. If this water causes a tree to be drowned, then the level ends and the player must start again. The aim of each level is to remove each tree from the level by clicking on it and by no other means. These trees are fragile and any interaction other than player directly selecting them will see them evaporate.

In early levels the game presents simple puzzles with trees easily removed with no incident. Later on things become more complex with spruces being present, requiring the player to change adjacent squares into water in order for the trees to grow, which can then allow them to be selected later. Other tiles such as lava and ice also present difficulties to the player and provide a very gradual challenge.

I happened upon Cloud Grove within the Indie Megabooth Minibooth at PAX Prime 2015. This is a collection of boothes within a booth and is one of the most interesting aspects of expo hall floor. The games in here are normally out of the ordinary and Cloud Grove is a good example of this.

Like similar games I saw at PAX Prime 2015, Cloud Grove had the basic engine working but Bromoco Games had not yet developed content for it, so it is not likely to see the light of day until sometime in 2016.

Cloud Grove is set to appear on Windows PC, Mac and Linux, with mobile platforms also being considered.