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Earlier today, Nic did me a great injustice by waving aside my suggestion that he write about Shroom And Gloom, because “I want to read you describing mushrooms in interesting ways”. Nic, I have no interesting ways to describe mushrooms right now. I used up all the mushroom lore I’ve ever gleaned from real-life foraging when I wrote about Morels 2, and I spent most of that article whining about unicorns. The best I can do as regards Shroom And Gloom is to say that these Shrooms do indeed look very Gloomy, possibly because some mad human has wandered into their warren and is now stabbing and eating them.
The aforesaid mad human (that’s your character, yes) does not even bother to finish murdering the fungus folk before dining out on their butchered brethren. Slay a mushroom with a fireball, and you’ll render the corpse “Toasty” enough to consume, stuffing its portly, seared body into your mouth even as you slice another mushroom with a wavy dagger. If this were an actual foraging expedition you’d at least want to count the spots and gills before sinking your teeth in.
Find a fleshy prototype for Shroom And Gloom on Itch.io. It’s certainly got atmosphere, with a soiled 3D parchment world of unpleasantly nested 2D rock and vegetation. Moving along the branching path feels like crawling down somebody’s intestine. Somebody who’s been eating a lot of mushrooms, and treasure chests. Gangs of pugnacious toadstools pop up at intervals, ranging from tiddly, er – consults Usborne Spotter’s Guide – Puffballs to rampaging Stinkhorns. Is this interesting yet, Nic? When I used to write for Edge, they’d chop your commission in half for calling things “interesting”. It was one of those banned Edge words, like “wowza” and “ginormous”.
You’ll massacre the mycelium using ability cards, the mushroom’s traditional foe. After 20 minutes with the demo, the card-battling is notable for a couple of reasons: firstly, the absence of conventional healing skills in battle means you’ll want to devour at least half of the enemies you kill, and secondly, there’s a “mood” system whereby you generate cards for “repressed rage”, “impatience” and other states of mind, unlocking buffs and special attacks. Yes, this is a game in which victory may be achieved by tactically driving yourself nuts. In addition to your combat deck, you’ve got an exploration deck of cards that include various types of lockpick and shovel. I say “lockpick” – one of the “picks” is the ability to throw up corrosive goo. Ah, if only Thief’s Garrett had thought of that one.
“Our dream version of this game features hundreds of cards, deep metaprogression and scores of unique enemies, spread across a dense network of caves and tunnels to explore!” explain developers Team Lazerbeam, who are being funded by Anger Foot and Terra Nil developers Free Lives. “This prototype offers a taste of what that experience could be.
“We’ve shot for the stars with what we tried to cram into this prototype over 3 months of development, and we’re really proud of what we pulled off,” the blurb continues. “That said, please note that this is a prototype. Expect rough edges and some jank. Keep in mind this is all a work in progress.” I hope they make it all the way to the finish, because Shroom And Gloom is my kind of desperately grim. One of the later-game card options lets you turn mushrooms into soup. I wonder if we’ll get to hear mushrooms scream. That would be interesting.