It’s been a few months since we last heard about Thunderful Publishing & developer Carry Castle’s dark action roguelike RPG, Source of Madness. Well, the game is out now on Steam Early Access, and it’s every bit of a trip as you might expect.
The story puts you in the role of an Acolyte as they embark on an odyssey through the nightmarish Loam Lands towards the Tower of Madness, the moon’s mysterious Citadel. Along the way, you’ll be battling monsters that are never the same as your previous playthrough. Source of Madness uses procedural generation in its monster design, and they’re all animated using a neural network AI.
Currently, the Early Access version includes 5 biomes to explore; the Prologue area, the Loam Land, the Cave of Lost Souls, the Forest of Lies and The Moon. Players have two classes to choose from in the Pyromancer and Generalist. There are also two major boss fights, which act as key progression milestones in the story.
“There are plenty of roguelites that alter their level design every time you play, but Source of Madness takes things one step further by altering the monsters you encounter,” said Per Fornander, Co-Founder at Carry Castle. “These twisted monstrosities are created by an AI, ensuring that even we are finding new abominations to face off against. The billions of possible monstrous forms feels cosmically overwhelming, which fits the tone of Source of Madness’ Lovecraftian horror.”
The devs plan an aggressive update schedule, beginning on September 27 with Geomancer class, new monster variations and additional fixes.