The Cork is on Kickstarter! Thread

Hey! I've been working on a game using the Godot Engine, and I wanted to share it with the lovely indiedb folks!

The Cork is a 2D Action-RPG set in a world that draws inspiration from classic Metroidvania platformers (with a heavy emphasis on vania) and the deliberate, challenging combat of Souls-likes.

...and a really tiny main character

Players take on the role of Salem Cairnwright, who after several months abroad finds his home devastated by a mysterious plague - its villagers erratic and hostile. The landscape beyond the village has changed, revealing an impossibly high wall towering above the forest. Gaining entry through a massive gate in the wall, you discover a kingdom built into the steep sides of an enormous crater. Descending into the crater to seek the source of the illness plaguing your village, you'll uncover the history of the forgotten kingdom and the tragic story of its fall.

A bit of History: The game began as a prototype on the Pico-8 fantasy console. The Pico-8 has limitations that are loads of fun to work with (a set resolution, limit color palette, and limited space to hold graphics data). In order to give myself extra frames to work with (and make smoother animations), I shrunk the character sprite from 8x8 pixels to 4x4. It provided an interesting sense of scale to the world, and I decided to push the idea further beyond the limitations of the Pico-8. You can play the prototype, called Crater, in the Pico-8 forums

The main character in the game still adheres to that 4x4 size, but breaks out of that limitation when weapons are equipped. Here are a few examples of weapon sets that can be found throughout the game.

Here's a a sneak peek at the inventory screen, which shows hints of what to expect with progression and loot. The player's inventory is divided into 3 tabs (plus a game settings tab): Standard Items, Equipment, and Key Items.

• The Standard Item stack will generally house consumables/useable items
• The Equipment item stack is for anything that can be equipped into the 8 equipment slots (Healing Vial, weapon, shield, accessory, head, torso, legs, and boots) to increase Salems various stats (more on that later).
• The Key Item stack will contain quest items and keys that can only be used at specific locations in the game or for specific purposes.

When you die in-game, the Lifeblood that you carry (analagous with souls in the Dark Souls series, it's used as currency for equipment/stat upgrades) crystalizes on your corpse. When you respawn, you'll have one chance to return to your corpse to shatter the crystal and collect your lost Lifeblood. Be careful though! The crystal attracts enemies to it, so you had better come prepared.

Heavily inspired by the sport of orienteering, we want to provide the player with detailed information about their surroundings while leaving their exact position off of the map itself. Players should rely on geographical features and signs ("Welcome to Inwall Harbor!") to better understand their place in the world, and to plan their next path. Some maps the player finds will have towns and areas labeled, but many are geographical only.

Being lost is a huge part of the game we want to make, and it's one of the main themes we're interested in exploring in both story and gameplay. Wandering off of the beaten path and desperately trying to reorient yourself to finally have that "Ah Ha!" moment is a part of the experience, so be prepared to go out there and get lost!

The player will encounter NPCs on their journey that can offer aid, provide lore, or give sidequests.

This guy is the Bloodsmith, who can upgrade your weapons and armor by infusing Lifeblood directly into their material.

Not everyone in Kinsbane is friendly (in fact most are openly hostile toward Salem). We've got ~20 enemies and bosses designed, and plan to have many more in the final release.

This fella here is Hackrot, the guildmaster of the Hauler's Guild.

Thank you for looking! If the game looks like your sort of thing (or you're just a fan of supporting indies), we're running a Kickstarter campaign right now to support development. Check out the Kickstarter campaign or follow us on twitter!

Thanks everyone for looking!

-Bradley