The Singer-songwriter behind Endless Dungeon, and more
Plus, Alan Wake 2 and a FNAF movie come out today
Twin Peaks meets Steven King in Alan Wake 2 — a cerebral sequel even more self-referential than the first game. It’s out today, and I’ll have more coverage on it next week.
Meanwhile, Five Nights at Freddy’s and its animatronic horrors curse the silver-screen. I tired of the original game when it came out in 2014, but that’s not stopped the series from spawning legion fans and seemingly-innumerable sequels. The new movie, however, has not enticed critics: its Rotten Tomatoes score languishes in the 20s.
But while either of these stories could command an entire newsletter, I instead want to draw your eyes to Endless Dungeon, a smaller game from Amplitude Studios, the makers of the venerated Endless Space and my beloved Endless Legend.
Endless Dungeon combines an action roguelike with tower defense, like pixelated predecessor Dungeon of the Endless. I’ll be the first to say the gameplay could be smoother — the single-player confused me, and the co-op frustrated as much as delighted me. But it’s visually sumptuous — and like the other Endless games, it’s also aurally engrossing.
While much of that appeal comes from series composer Arnaud Roy, Endless Dungeon also features four original songs from Lera Lynn, a Grammy-nominated musician who played a bar singer in HBO’s True Detective. Her digital avatar performs at the game’s central saloon area. Check out what that sounds like in this interview I produced with Here & Now host Scott Tong.
In other news, I’ve also been playing Let’s! Revolution! — a beautifully pastel roguelike based on Minesweeper, of all things. I’ve also perused The Making of Karateka, an impressive interactive museum dedicated to the 1984 martial arts classic. I’ve played the 2012 Karateka remake, so I was especially eager to learn how a college kid programmed so influential a game (also, he went on to design the original Prince of Persia!).
Have to keep things brief today, as I’m running late to a spooky Magic: the Gathering tournament. Happy Halloween!