Nic did me a huge disservice today by rejecting my suggestion that he write about Shroom And Gloom because “I’d like to read you describing mushrooms in an interesting way.” Nic, I don’t have any engaging ways to describe mushrooms right now. I exhausted all the mushroom knowledge I’ve ever gathered from a real hunt when I wrote about Morels 2, and I spent most of that article complaining about unicorns. The best I can say about Shroom And Gloom is that those Shrooms look very grim indeed, probably because some crazy person wandered into their lair and is now stabbing and eating them.
The aforementioned madman (yes, that’s your character) doesn’t even bother to finish slaughtering the mushroom pickers before he moves on to their mangled brethren. Kill a mushroom with a fireball and you’ll render its corpse “roasted” enough to eat, stuffing its obese, charred flesh into your mouth even as you slice another mushroom with a wavy dagger. If this were a real foraging expedition, you’d at least want to count the spots and gills before sinking your teeth into them.
Find the meaty Shroom And Gloom prototype on Itch.io. It definitely has atmosphere, with a muddy 3D parchment world nestled uncomfortably with 2D rocks and vegetation. Navigating the branching path feels like crawling inside someone’s gut. Someone who’s eaten a lot of mushrooms and treasure chests. Gangs of belligerent toadstools pop up every now and then, from petite, er – I am consulting Usborne Observer’s Guide – Puffballs to the raging Stinkhorns. Is that engaging yet, Nic? When I wrote for Edge, they cut your commission in half for calling things “interesting.” It was one of those forbidden Edge words, like “wowza” and “gigantic.”
You’ll slaughter the mycelium with skill cards, the time-honored mushroom enemy. After 20 minutes with the demo, the card combat is notable for a few reasons: first, the lack of conventional healing abilities in battle means you’ll want to eat at least half the enemies you kill, and second, there’s a “mood” system where you generate cards for “restrained rage,” “impatience,” and other states of mind, unlocking buffs and special attacks. Yes, this is a game where victory is achieved by tactically driving yourself crazy. In addition to the combat deck, you have an exploration deck of cards that includes various types of lockpicks and a shovel. I say “lockpick” – one of the “lockpicks” is the ability to vomit up caustic goo. Oh, if only Garrett from Thief had thought of that.
“Our dream version of this game would feature hundreds of cards, deep meta-progression, and a ton of unique enemies, spread across a dense network of caves and tunnels to explore!” explain developer Team Lazerbeam, who are funded by Anger Foot and Terra Nil creators Free Lives. “This prototype gives us a taste of what this experience could be.
“We’ve been trying to squeeze 3 months of development into this prototype and we’re really proud of what we’ve managed to achieve,” the description continues. “That said, please remember that this is a prototype. Expect some kinks and some imperfections. Remember, this is all a work in progress.” I hope they make it to the end, because Shroom And Gloom is my kind of desperately grim game. One of the late-game card options lets you turn mushrooms into soup. I wonder if we’ll hear the mushrooms scream. That would be engaging.
