I did not expect to meet Mozart in Shovel Game, nor did I expect him to ask me to mine a pyramid of shit, with the helpful advice that I start at the top to avoid any floating shitbricks. Mozart is probably the least interesting thing about Shovel Game, actually.
It’s a shortform first-person oddity with Minecraft-style destructible voxels (yes I know Minecraft doesn’t really use voxels) and a touch of AHL_5am. The idea is to tunnel through “a sequence of strange and unfamiliar spaces”. Here’s a trailer.
Watch on YouTube
Only certain blocks can be mined, and you’ll want to dig with caution, because the catacombs are full of groaning, wailing sprites that look like Zordon from Power Rangers. It’s as if somebody had cracked the glass on his energy tube, freeing the galactic wizard’s blobby visage to wander the Earth in pain. Enemies kill you on contact and I’ve yet to discover any weapons, just my trusty shovel and an 8-ball – purpose unknown.
It’s coming to Steam, but you can find a demo on Itch.io. Expect plenty of aggravation: there’s a labyrinth full of oozy blue phantoms that requires fast footwork. Also a kind of cosmic chapel full of what appear to be flattened babies. The developer is Luke Vincent, who created it for a “shovelware horror” gamejam, ho ho.
Bonus game mention: leafing through the submissions page for that jam, I discover a new work from Mike Klubnika, architect of Buckshot Roulette and the recent S.p.l.i.t., which Nic had eloquent emotions about. Co-developed with James Dornan, Klubnika’s jam game is called Crank It and is about being stuck behind a set of gadgets in a cavernous hallway, trying to spot horrible creatures. Got to say, this sounds far worse than shit pyramid Mozart.