Cryptmaster is a dungeon crawler where you interact with the world by speaking or typing words in advantageous ways to survive the deep crypts organized by the Cryptmaster. Travel through mysterious underground kingdoms and meet talking doors, flirtatious toads, sarcastic ghouls, and more.
I had a fun time talking with Paul Hart and Lee Williams, the developers of Cryptmaster about how the development is going and some of the inspirations they had in developing Cryptmaster.
Wishlist Cryptmaster on Steam.
Dev log
What was your inspiration for Cryptmaster?
Cryptmaster is the result of a whole jumble of inspirations, many of which only became apparent as we were making it. Mechanically, there are touches of classic dungeon crawlers, puzzle games, word-based games like Scribblenauts and RPGs. In theme and aesthetic, we drew from a lot of the passions of our younger selves, things which are now kind of nostalgic: D&D, Fighting Fantasy, B-movies, board games…
Two key influences were the VHS board game Atmosfear and the TV show Knightmare. We were fortunate enough to get Hugo Myatt, who presented the latter, to provide some voice-over for the game!
Any funny bugs you would like to share?
There have been heaps. Endlessly spawning crabs, over-enthusiastic ragdolling, unsolvable puzzles. Some of them even stayed in the game, like the Cryptmaster’s tendency to keep trying to look at the thing he’s holding while he’s talking to you.
What has been your favorite moment(s) in developing Cryptmaster so far?
The whole process has been a lot of fun. Just coming up with crazy ideas and seeing what sticks. That’s the joy of a small team really. Hopefully some of that joy and playfulness will be transmitted to the players.
What are some tips you can give to people looking to design games?
Just go for it. Start making games, joining game jams, getting to know how things work. Embrace failure and you’ll always be learning.
What is something you have learned in developing Cryptmaster?
The whole thing has been a learning process. There are things we’d do differently if we were to make it again but then we wouldn’t have the game we have now, so maybe that’s a good thing!
Is there a “secret word” that players should say to the Cryptmaster when they play the demo?
The Cryptmaster is a keen player of ROCK, PAPER, SCISSORS. He can also be persuaded to indulge in a spot of ASMR. Really, I’d encourage players to experiment – we have a LOT of responses in there!
