UnderDungeon, an upcoming playful dungeon-crawler from Josyan and RedDeerGames, has just revealed that it will launch on January 13th, 2023. It will be available on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, and the Nintendo Switch. At this time, there’s no word on a PlayStation release window. You can watch today’s new trailer on publisher RedDeerGames’ YouTube channel here:
UnderDungeon is another retro love letter that promises to combine old school graphics with the density of a modern 2D game. The cartoonish, cute art design and frenzied animations in today’s trailer both offer up a slick sense of humor.
In fact, even the Steam product page calls for “a normal graphic card”, which is pretty amusing itself. The soundtrack also has a silly, adventurous tone, which really refines the personality of the game. Although most indie games lean on retro nostalgia, it’s admittedly pretty bold for the devs to commit to a fully black and white setting, which pre-dates most of the homage titles on the market.
Players will assume the role of a delivery cat in a world full of secret areas, but players can also expect an actual story. That’s ambitious, since the premise of the game is pretty simple: monsters have appeared, and the in-game world is trying to survive or resist.
Ideally, the lore will elaborate more on the protagonist, whose occupation and origins are far more intriguing than their environment thus far. The genuine dungeon-crawlers that inspired UnderDungeon were generally able to thrive on clever action and a compelling art design alone.
Developer Josyan has made just a couple of a games, and UnderDungeon looks to be their biggest investment yet. Publisher RedDeerGames has championed a large variety of indies, with no specific flavor for a throughline. But there have certainly been plenty of winners, such as the console release of reky, and the recent launch of Space Tail.
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