Book Of Demons Pops Up On Early Access
R. E. S. P. E. C. T.
Papery tribute to the Diablo series, Book of Demons [official site], has been released on Steam Early Access, offering players the chance to totter through a dark and dangerous dungeon with a little cardboard cut-out man wielding some cards. Truly, you are a force to be reckoned with. Look upon this trailer, ye mighty, and despair.
Described as a "deck-building hack and slash adventure" set in an arts 'n' crafts world called the Paperverse, Book of Demons is a pastiche of ye olde dungeon-crawling RPGs, in which adventurers pick a class - Knight, Rogue or Mage - and build a deck of useful cards, instead of relying on a stat-based system of leveling up and up. Some cards will let you throw poison bombs, some will erect ice walls and others will summon golems.
But it also doesn't want you to forget about your supper, so there's a system in place to adjust the time each procedurally generated dungeon will take to trounce through, in an effort to suit whatever you like best. The game will observe the way you play and limit or extend the time of each level accordingly, say developers Thing Trunk.
This is all part of their Return 2 Games series, which promises to take the ideas of yesteryear and rejuvenate them for the modern day wastrel. Their plan is to make seven new games (each one a "Book of X") all based on classics but adding modern twists and making them more accessible to the time-constrained adults of today.
I see a lot of talk about this sort of thing, people praising games for "respecting my time." Personally, I can't think of anything more frown-worthy. I yearn for time-sinks. I like my vidyagames disrespectful. But then again, I don't have children or any other disgusting domestic creature in my life. What about you, dads and mums, boys and girls? Is all you want a little respect? Does card-collecting dungeon-crawling do it for you?
Book of Demons is on Steam Early Access for £11.24/14,99€/$14.99, including a 25% launch discount.
Also, I was a bit surprised to see RPS getting the quotes treatment in that trailer. When I looked into the "nostalgia without disappointments" comment, I discovered it came from Melody's news post, who used the phrase more as a matter of speculation than a statement of fact. Cheeky, marketing. Very cheeky.