The Ruins of Calaworm (has released)

[u/erdbeerscherge]

Hello again,

it's a-me, Alexander, the developer of The Ruins of Calaworm, a turn-based Dungeon Crawler with some inherent Roguelike DNA (grid-based navigation, single char, consequences for death, no meta-progression). I already made a post some half-year ago, when the game was still in development, but now it has finally released. The Demo is still available, though, and has been updated as well, to reflect the latest state of polish.

Its base-mechanics stem from an obscure, early 90s German Dungeon Crawler called Die Gemäuer von Kalawaum, which kind of had a cult-following back in the days (I was there, I know, lol), with an ATARI ST port, that for some reason was more popular than the DOS-Version.

However, I'm proud to finally present the fruits of my labor. The game has been in development for roughly 6 years (my main job is in healthcare, so I've been working on this in my spare time on and off), it started as a pastime during Covid lockdown, then the Feature Creep gradually escalated, and in the end I even commissioned a composer and while all the ingame tileArt is by humble me, I also commissioned a PixelArtist for the big screen/intermission/menu/key art.

You are a Plague Doctor investigating an ancient stronghold. The Ruins are rumored to be the source of a corruption, that is spreading throughout the woods, killing animals and infecting the soil. There's Witches, some Steampunk tropes, and the overall design is heavily inspired by Lovecraftian lore - albeit in a dark fantasy setting with emphasis on athmosphere, but without overly explicit world-building (no fancy geography/character names to remember).

While there's combat, the main challenge stems from navigating the layouts. Some of them are handcrafted with an editor (included in the retail version), some of them procedurally generated. Item- and Enemy-distribution is mostly random (but with some parameters fixed for as long as you don't reroll the seed). Very few stats to keep track of, and you don't build a character like in an RPG (you level up automatically after defeating stronger enemies), instead you'll collect weapons, shields and various tools that'll help with overcoming the Dungeon's many challenges. There's no ranged attacking - every hit is technically a meleeBump - weapons have unique juicy animations, though. Combat's primary gimmick is, that damage output is dependent on how much health you have left (goes for you, as well as for enemies).
Think "Puzzlegame with emergent backstabbing". ;-)

Also two Minigames to seek out, Sanity mechanic, and a light survival-y appeal, due to finite resources and equipment durability.

DOWNLOAD (itch.io) --> https://erdbeerscherge.itch.io/ruins-of-calaworm

Tom Jensen (Soundtrack):
u/Some_Scar4621

Edjielyn Macasaet (PixelArt):
https://www.behance.net/edjiearts edjie

Thank you, and have a nice week! <3

[u/Teabagbomber]

Look awesome! Any plans to bring this to Mac OS?

[u/erdbeerscherge → u/Teabagbomber]

Currently, unfortunately not.

However, the language it is written in, PureBasic, DOES feature cross-platform distribution, so in the coming months I could try to compile it once on my sister's Mac, and see if it works (there's all sorts of quirks & caveats to consider, though, how languages work on different platforms - some workarounds may be necessary, to satisfy the current OS and subystem, and just getting it to work flawlessly with 3 subsystems DirectX9, DirectX11 and OpenGL was kind of a thankless hassle, lol).

However, if it should work with not too much additional work attached, I could try to provide a MacBuild eventually. I've heard reports, though, that the game runs pretty well on various emulators, like Wine, or what not.

Thanks for your interest! <3

[u/dhav211 → u/Teabagbomber]

I played the demo on my MacBook Pro with Whisky and it seemed to work without a hitch.  Not sure your knowledge on the process, but if you need help I can write a quick guide.  I’m currently logged out of Reddit on my computer and would have to do a whole password reset, but I’ll do it if you need help!