Chasm is a polished looking Castlevania-esque roguelike on Kickstarter
Demo already available on PC.
If you put Castlevania, Diablo, Metroid and Zelda in a blender the result might look something like Chasm. Or a disgusting puddle of plastic and metal mush, but I'm an optimist.
Developed by indie studio Discord Games, Chasm combines Symphony of the Night's 2D action RPG gameplay and expressive sprites with Diablo's randomly generated levels. While Spelunky already did the 2D sidescrolling action roguelike quite well, Chasm looks different. For better or worse, it lacks the simplicity of Derek Yu's modern classic and instead offers a much more robust system of equipping numerous weapons and gear ala Castlevania. It will be a bigger game than Spelunky with six Metroid-like areas to explore, and due to the game's scope, it won't feature permadeath in normal mode - though this can be enabled on Hard mode.
Chasm has only been announced for PC, Mac and Linux, but a console version could be in the cards as well. When asked about this on its Kickstarter FAQ, Discord responded, "We're not sure yet. We're focusing on PC as our primary platform, but are interested in bringing it to anything with a d-pad. Some of these platforms are closed, and we just haven't met the right people yet!"
Those who back Chasm with $15 will receive a digital copy of the game when it comes out around May 2014, while early birds can spend another $10 to gain earlier access to the beta.
If you're not sure if it'll be your cup of tea, there's a PC demo you can try out already. It shows a lot of promise.
So far Chasm has received $9768 towards its $150,000 goal, which is not too shabby when one considers that the Kickstarter just launched today and it's got 29 days to go before the 12th May deadline. Those who want to support Chasm but don't have any money could always vote for it on Steam Greenlight.
