Shroom & Gloom Analysis – Intro (1)
Shroom & Gloom Analysis – Intro (1)
I was trolling through the Reddit game developer subforums (don’t judge) and I came across a seemingly innocuous promo post for a game called ‘Shroom and Gloom’. This is not an uncommon event as every dev and their dog spam their offerings in an attempt to get exposure, however, this felt different. There was something about this post that caused me to want to read it. Maybe it was the catchy title of the game… “Shroom and Gloom”. Simple, catchy, and also pretty fun to say.
I clicked the post link and was greeted by a video, they had me hook line, and sinker. The art style was beautifully moody and simple; it reminded me of ‘Inscryption’ with its heavy outlines and scrawled depictions of creatures that rendered the common maniacal and weird. Unlike ‘Inscryption’, however, the player moved through dungeon rooms; stopping to engage in card-driven battles and build their decks during the lulls in the action. I had to give it a go and give it a go I did.
I was not disappointed.
It has been a very long time since I’ve binged a videogame, I’m thinking almost ‘World of Warcraft’ (Vanilla, for the purists).
This binge lasted six hours.
The loops in this game were simple. The content is impressive (at the time of play it’s still in development and doesn’t have a Steam page) and the artwork was fun and easy on the eyes. Thank god I have a wife who has no interest in video games or I may have been pretty knackered for work the next day.
But here’s the kicker, I don’t even particularly like roguelikes/digital card builders all that much…
I needed to know how this captured my attention to the degree that it did and as any creative problem requires, I needed to blog about it.
Links
Download: https://teamlazerbeam.itch.io/shroom-and-gloom
Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/indiegames/comments/1fea4i9/the_game_called_shroom_and_gloom_share_your/