Archvale is the coolest thing to come out of YouTube dev logs yet!
I can't be the only games blogger who is a habitual consumer of Youtube dev logs that also secretly wants to create a videogame (shhh). I also cannot be the only person who was blindsided by the quality of IDoZ and Phop's recent series documenting their soon-to-be-released title Archvale.
The thing about developer logs is that you are, in most cases, seeing the roughest possible work on a game that you hope to play one day but are not sure if that day will ever come. Archvale seems to be the exception to the rule here, because of its polish and focus on completing the game. Throughout the series, you see the game's main developer James (who goes by IDoZ online) iterate on systems like dodge rolls vs parries, items, map generation and boss design all with the intent to make them release-ready and it becomes clear that this is an ever-present goal in the dev logs. Kudos to everyone involved, these are so much fun to watch.
Archvale seems to be the answer to a question: What if the Legend of Zelda was a bullet hell and modernized for today's audiences? If you were to punch up the language a bit one might say that Archvale is a procedurally generated roguelike that encompasses bullet hell mechanics as well as an old-school RPG feel. It comes complete with different biomes, dungeon crawling, local co-op, and a roster of super cool feeling weapons. Check out the madness below!
If that has convinced you to check this game out, IDoZ and Phops have released a free demo that is DRM-free for windows users to download here. What a cool gesture! Expect a full What's good about entry about this game shortly after release!
Speaking of, Archvale releases on PC, Xbox and Switch platforms on December 2 and will retail for $14.99.
To IDoZ, Phops and the music team – watching your content has been awesome, please keep releasing videos even after the release of Archvale. It's looking good!
