This time at the Gamescom, I got to talk to a lot of developers and publishers, including Akupara Games who were there, showcasing both their new and upcoming narrative experience, Universe for Sale, as well as the incredibly stylish First-Person Dungeon Crawler, Cryptmaster!

As a side note, before I talk more about Cryptmaster, Universe for Sale is an incredibly wholesome and intriguing Visual Novel with a Sci-Fi setting where the protagonist of the story loses her sense of self and talks to an old friend in order to figure out what to do with her ability to create whole universes.

It’s incredibly atmospheric and amazing and the demo is sadly no longer on Steam but chances are that it will come back sooner rather than later!

I highly recommend checking out its Steam page and maybe hitting that Wishlist button!

It’s a great experience and I didn’t want to take away from it and before long, the demo wasn’t available anymore, so I just wanted to talk about it over here without giving away too much!

On top of all that, I just can’t wait to learn more about the protagonist’s and her friend’s (platonic) relationship. It’s really well-made!

Cryptmaster has you awakening in an unfamiliar dungeon, not exactly remembering how you got there or what has happened to you…

Here, a floating head, the titular Cryptmaster who speaks in riddles, guides you through this place, possibly with ulterior motives.

Long story short, you and your band of adventuring buddies are now undead and to figure out a way back to the land of the living, you’ll need to solve riddles and fight your way through this dungeon!

To fight, you first have to remember your abilities and equipment – by typing out the names of the attacks! That’s pretty darn cool.

The unique twist to Cryptmaster’s Wizardry-esque dungeon-crawling experience is that it’s a typing game, utilizing typing to issue commands to your band of adventurers, ranging from “hit” and “zap” to other more powerful effects that let you attack from afar, heal, or stun enemies!

As you find chests and unlock abilities, you’ll have to deal with the quirky Cryptmaster’s riddles or lose out on potential new skills and strengths.

Overall, the atmosphere of Cryptmaster is amazing with a perilous and ominous dungeon awaiting the player, an incredibly cool Cryptmaster responding to whatever you’re typing out, and unique interactions making the player laugh from time to time.

At least, I had to chuckle a fair bit when I was told to “stop with the cutesy shit” after typing out “UWU”… the fact that I can do that and that I’m immediately told that Undead don’t do that… is amazing.

I can’t wait to see what other interactions there are in the game and where the story will bring me, especially with the real-time meets turn-based nature of combat that gives you enough time so that “typing out attack names” doesn’t become an issue while still getting your blood pumping with close and dangerous encounters.

It’s really well-designed and the black-and-white nature of the game is incredibly stylish.

You can wishlist Cryptmaster on Steam right now btw to be able to say anything in an adventure where worlds control everything! Heck, there is even a setting for Voice Only commands which should make for some good fun, too!

Also, it’s published by Akupara Games, known for games like Astrea, Rain World, Behind the Frame, and other very interesting games… and they do a lot of great work behind the scenes, so just go check out Cryptmaster already, will ya?

This post was first published on Indiecator by Dan Indiecator aka MagiWasTaken. If you like what you see here and want to see more, you can check me out on Twitch and YouTube as well.