09/08/2025
Earlier this year our team created a demo for ByteOff V for a game titled "Kearf ze Haerneakh", a puzzle game. Essentially, the unnamed protagonist must find an exit to leave each stage in a cavern before the time runs out. The demo only had about twenty or thirty stages and there were a lot of ideas left unused. Flash forward to now.
Kearf ze Haerneakh has been turned into Dark Cave Legend, and the game has been fully fleshed out. There are now fifty puzzles to solve, more enemies and treasures to collect, etc. Can you solve each puzzle and make it out before the time (45 seconds) is up? In fact, we had so much fun when designing stages for this that we also prepared a sequel, Dark Cave Legend 2.
Originally the language used in the game was wan khu, a constructed language I had created a few years back in my spare time, hence the name "Kearf ze Haerneakh". Of course this was a bit over-the-top for many people, so we decided to release two versions of each game, one in English and the other in the constructed wan khu language.
In addition, there is a board game made to go with this game release. We are currently waiting for a professional prototype to arrive (should be here in the next few weeks). We took some inspiration from Genpei Toumaden on the Famicom, which included a board game with its release. I know that the board game won't appeal to everyone, so the game itself (as well as the board game) can be backed individually; however, for those who back both the board game and the game, we'll try to do something special (maybe a special packaging that houses them both?) as tbh this is how I envisioned the release during its conception.
Similarly, for those interested in languages and constructed languages, a mini grammar and dictionary for wan khu will be available as an add-on for backers.
If this looks like your kind of thing, please consider backing. If this looks interesting but isn't exactly for you, please consider helping us spread the word anyways. Some of my friends and I had a lot of fun designing and playing through the puzzles and think that as the game is simple to learn, difficult to master, it might be a hit at your parties too!
As always, thanks for the interest and support.
Link to the Kickstarter Project:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/900809083/dark-cave-legend-a-new-fc-and-nes-puzzle-game-by-yi-tai-youxi
