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Prepare yourself for another retro-inspired action adventure with Cathedral, developed by the Swedish team at Decemberborn Interactive.

Cathedral is leaning heavily into the NES style here with both the colour palette and the audio work, although they're not fully restricting themselves so it has elements taken from both the 8-bit and 16-bit era.

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I have to admit it, there's certainly a resemblance to Shovel Knight here. Hopefully the game-play will be different enough to make it worth playing. Cathedral seems to have a big emphasis on the exploration with their hand-built world, as opposed to just going through a lot of combat encounters.

Feature Highlight:

  • Single player adventure game
  • A large world to explore, filled with secrets
  • Challenging boss fights
  • A map system that makes exploring and backtracking the world fun
  • Towns, shops, shopkeepers, fortune tellers and other NPCs
  • Lots of varying puzzles, areas and enemies
  • Awesome 8-bit music, made in Famitracker

What's also quite interesting is the tech behind this one. They're not using Game Maker, Unity or any 2D game making tools. Instead, they've gone for a home brew approach:

Cathedral's engine is written completely from scratch, both the rendering engine, physics engine and all tooling. The engine itself is written in C and C++ with scripting in Lua. Rendering is done through OpenGL, and most of our tools are written in either C++, Python or JavaScript.

Currently, their plan is to release sometime in October. As for Linux support, it's very clearly listed on their official site.

You can wishlist and follow it on GOG and Steam.

Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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13 comments
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robvv Aug 28, 2019
Ooh! Looks like just my cup of tea, with the platforming and old-school feel :-)
sub Aug 28, 2019
Quoting: robvvOoh! Looks like just my cup of tea, with the platforming and old-school feel :-)

Did you try "Alwa's Awakening"?

Wants to accomplish the very same, but does it way better imho.
(Judging from the video above, ofc.)
robvv Aug 28, 2019
Quoting: sub
Quoting: robvvOoh! Looks like just my cup of tea, with the platforming and old-school feel :-)

Did you try "Alwa's Awakening"?

Wants to accomplish the very same, but does it way better imho.
(Judging from the video above, ofc.)

I have it in my library but have not properly played it yet. It got lost in my collection of 'to be played' :-) I must make some time to play it.
slaapliedje Aug 28, 2019
The artwork seems like they ripped it directly from Ghosts n' Goblins. Hopefully I don't break my steam controller playing it, like I would if I kept trying to play Ghosts n' Goblins...
kokoko3k Aug 28, 2019
Just play the classics...
sub Aug 28, 2019
Quoting: kokoko3kJust play the classics...

What's your top 5 to try?

Thanks. :)
kokoko3k Aug 28, 2019
Quoting: sub
Quoting: kokoko3kJust play the classics...

What's your top 5 to try?

Thanks. :)
Platformers... so hard to make (just) a Top 5...
I'm sure i'm missing something here; in no particular order:
Turrican (all of them - Amiga), Leander (Amiga),james pond - Robocod (Amiga), New Zeland story (Arcade) ,Toki (Arcade), and to stay "in topic", Ghost'n Goblins (Arcade), Wonderboy (Arcade)


Last edited by kokoko3k on 28 August 2019 at 8:55 pm UTC
robvv Aug 28, 2019
Quoting: kokoko3kPlatformers... so hard to make (just) a Top 5...
I'm sure i'm missing something here; in no particular order:
Turrican (all of them - Amiga), Leander (Amiga),james pond - Robocod (Amiga), New Zeland story (Arcade) ,Toki (Arcade), and to stay "in topic", Gost'n Goblins (Arcade), Wonderboy (Arcade)

Or if you're proper old school... ;-)

Citadel, Quest, Plan B/Plan B II, Shark (forgotten classic!), Codename: Droid etc.
slaapliedje Aug 29, 2019
Quoting: robvv
Quoting: kokoko3kPlatformers... so hard to make (just) a Top 5...
I'm sure i'm missing something here; in no particular order:
Turrican (all of them - Amiga), Leander (Amiga),james pond - Robocod (Amiga), New Zeland story (Arcade) ,Toki (Arcade), and to stay "in topic", Gost'n Goblins (Arcade), Wonderboy (Arcade)

Or if you're proper old school... ;-)

Citadel, Quest, Plan B/Plan B II, Shark (forgotten classic!), Codename: Droid etc.
Really old school: Jumpman, Miner 2049er, Bonty Bob Strikes Back, Mr. Robot and the Robot Factory.
tuubi Aug 29, 2019
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Quoting: slaapliedje
Quoting: robvv
Quoting: kokoko3kPlatformers... so hard to make (just) a Top 5...
I'm sure i'm missing something here; in no particular order:
Turrican (all of them - Amiga), Leander (Amiga),james pond - Robocod (Amiga), New Zeland story (Arcade) ,Toki (Arcade), and to stay "in topic", Gost'n Goblins (Arcade), Wonderboy (Arcade)

Or if you're proper old school... ;-)

Citadel, Quest, Plan B/Plan B II, Shark (forgotten classic!), Codename: Droid etc.
Really old school: Jumpman, Miner 2049er, Bonty Bob Strikes Back, Mr. Robot and the Robot Factory.
I loved creating my own levels in Mr. Robot.

I'd like to add Auf Wiedersehen Monty (the first game I bought with my own cash), Jet Set Willy, Cauldron II and Zorro to the C-64 list. Also Rick Dangerous II, Superfrog and Zool for the Amiga.
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The comments on this article are closed.