Draft:Cryptmaster

Developer(s)	Paul Hart, Lee Williams
Publisher(s)	Akupara Games
Composer(s)	surasshu, Stemage, Catton Arthur
Engine	Unity
Platform(s)	Windows
Release	WW: May 9, 2024
Genre(s)	Puzzle, RPG, dungeon crawler
Mode(s)	Single-player

Cryptmaster is a 2024 role-playing typing game developed by Paul Hart and Lee Williams, and published by Akupara Games. It was released on Steam, GOG, and Itch.io on May 9, 2024 for Windows. The game is played by typing words on a keyboard.

It has received positive reviews for its gameplay and visual design. It has won awards from Independent Games Festival, BIG Festival, and IndieCade.

Gameplay

The player controls a party of four members: Joro, Syn, Maz, and Nix. The player is accompanied by the eponymous Cryptmaster, a necromancer who also acts on the player's behalf during some interactions. Additionally, the Cryptmaster provides assistance and guidance throughout the game, explaining the mechanics and offering guidance. Each party member's health is represented by the number of letters they have in their name. Additional letters can be added on to their names after leveling up to increase health.

The game's elements and mechanics are entirely reliant on typing. Players navigate, battle, and progress through the game by typing out a word describing an action or response. All four party members bear a sequence of letters below their name that, when discovered and typed, reward either a battle move or plot information, both unique to that party member. While in battle, learned moves are executed by whom they belong to. Winning a battle will yield one letter from the enemy's name. Moves may also be used outside of battle.

Puzzles are present throughout the environment in chests, skulls, and in other plot elements. Chests are opened by guessing their contents, and they provide multiple random letters that act as hints for what a party member's potential move or backstory may be. Skulls pose riddles to the player; a correct answer will yield souls. Souls are stored inside of a "Soulstone" that belongs to the Cryptmaster. Souls are used as magic energy for certain moves such as healing.

Accessibility

Optionally, a push-to-talk option can be enabled, replacing the keyboard with voice input. This option is only on Windows 10 and greater and it requires a system setting to be enabled. Using voice control disables some minor gameplay elements and encounters.

An option to show hints and make the puzzles easier is also available.

Plot

Four heroes had battled a "great evil" but perished after. They awaken in a crypt, having been resurrected by the Cryptmaster, an eponymous necromancer. The Cryptmaster has the group ascend the crypt–which has since had multiple layers built atop it.–so that he can break into the world of the living. As a result of being dead for so long, all four heroes have lost their memories and abilities; they regain their strength as the game progresses.

Development

Conception

The game's development started when co-developer Lee Williams offered to write for free for a number of indie games that caught his eye. Paul Hart was one of the first to take him up on this opportunity and they've worked on and off ever since. Cryptmaster came into fruition by accident when both parties were trying to concept their upcoming title in which they wanted a typing mechanic to be the core gameplay loop. After many iterations the idea of the Cryptmaster came to life.

Design

After deciding on the typing controls early on, they figured they would have to work on merging combat into this newfound way of playing a game. Initially giving players all skills at the start and upgrading their attributes as they played. Doing some testing with friends and family the duo figured out that the Hangman, Wordle, and Wheel of Fortune type of gameplay was giving the appropriate response that they were looking for.

With the immense word dictionary that Cryptmaster has hard-coded into its library it needed to attach dialogue to each and every response. Believed to be AI by many, Lee Williams and Paul Hart recorded over four thousand words and responses as they wanted players to feel as if the Cryptmaster was really reacting to each word and action they took.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate scores

Aggregator	Score
Metacritic	78/100
OpenCritic	86% Critics Recommend

Review scores

Publication	Score
Hardcore Gamer	4/5
RPGFan	85
TouchArcade	4.5/5

Awards

Publication	Award
Independent Games Festival	Excellence in Design
IndieCade	Jury Prix Award

Slant was more negative, criticizing the repetition and lore. Aaron Riccolo said that, "Above all, Cryptmaster suffers from you having too many words to learn and there being far too few chapters in which to do so."

External links

• Cryptmaster at IMDb
• Official website
• Steam page