Darkwood mixes crafting, permadeath, and top-down horror

Put your headphones on

When I realized that we had neglected to write about Acid Wizard Studio’s Darkwood, which made the rounds last week, I jumped at the opportunity to do so now. You might have seen the embedded pre-alpha footage for this “top-down, oldschool survival horror set in a procedurally generated open world, with RPG and roguelike elements” already, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take. Because seriously, that’s one hell of a premise.

By day, gameplay is centered around exploring the nearby forest, but at night, as shown in this trailer, time is better spent setting up traps and other defenses at home. There is permadeath in Darkwood, but “some things carry on to your next incarnation.”

The game is trying to garner love on Steam Greenlight, which shouldn’t be too tough an endeavor considering that audience and the types of games it often latches on to. Acid Wizard says that funding via Indiegogo or Kickstarter is likely, and, again, I could see that ending well for the studio.