- News I guess? - 5 October 2026
Hello everyone, it is strange to post here again after years of silence.So first of all, Crawlyard is dead. I won't be working on it anymore, at least not in a nearest months. I have plans for it, but for now I wanna do something smaller and more aligned with my vision. And cheaper.There were multiple reasons why CY didn't happen, but I don't wanna delve deep into them right now. The lesson, though, is that if you wanna make your own game, I beg you to start small; even when you've won all the possible awards and secured trillions, start small.That said, here's the game I'm working on right now: I understand if it's not your cup of tea, but a manager of a guild of heroes was the game that I wanted to make for a long time. I promise, this one will make it to the release day.Sorry again for letting y'all down, whoever still waited for CY. Lessons learned.Yours, one and only,Vovun.P.S. Joi…
- Crawling with developers 🔴 Side B - 23 June 2023
Hey again! We welcome all to a Next Fest stream where the Pigeon Eye studio members will present an updated demo and will try to pass the unsurmountable game tutorial. And we hope the next stream will go smoothly (not like the last one, ha)! So, jump in, say Hi and let's crawl together!
- Crawlyard Crawling with developers 🔴 Side A - 18 June 2023
Hey! We welcome all to a Next Fest stream where the game's team will present an updated demo. So, jump in, say Hi and let's crawl together!
- More focused battle encounters - Devlog #7 - 9 September 2022
How could this broken shell of a man, barely able to carry the weight of his own sword, be the Burning Terror which drove me to hide here? He seemed to have Demons of his own, that he struggled to contain... and he was losing. Changes to the battle system We’ve made a complete overhaul of Crawlyard's battle encounters. Before, it felt like a hybrid of Vampire Survivors and Loop Hero, but now it’s more like Hadean Tactics. What I mean by that is that each encounter now has its own battle zone, borders and enemies, all happening within the stage of your chosen performance. Basically, we aimed to arrive at a seamless transition between exploration and skirmish like you'd see in modern JRPGs. Each battle is a pretty much consistent experience and enemies won’t spawn totally randomly (well, there's still a hint of randomness within specific conditions). Here, a fancy gif where I'm using batt…
- Devlog #6 - Going fully Isometric - 10 June 2022
Today I received the following message "I came across your game on Twitter and it looks VERY different from what I played in the previous build. Did you do a massive overhaul?" So people are starting to notice the change and it's time to tell about it properly. Yes, we changed the visual look of the game. I know a lot of people like Crawlyard for its cartoony and simplistic graphics. But the truth is, most of it were graphical assets from the Unity store, which is not really our level - we can do so much more. There's also always not enough assets there either way, we need a lot of out custom graphics to use it as an element of environmental storytelling. I guess now you can say that 70% of visuals is fully made by our 3D modellers. After the October's demo we also wanted to make the visuals more theatrical. What I mean by this is that all of the objects on scenes would be made out of c…
- Devlog #5 - Sinister Laboratory - 28 May 2022
This morning, when I was out on the porch, I saw clouds forming these ominous words: "Write a devlog, or else…" Oh my, this seems to be a sign, and who am I to oppose the higher power? Fleshing out the game We are currently focusing on polishing our new "dungeon" system, performances, and revamping card and progression mechanics. Performance production actually consists of several steps going in strict order: first, we have the general structure and lore background suggested by the writer, and then our game design team develops interesting mechanics to go along with it. Graphics, music and sound come next, and the levels are brought together by proper lighting and asset placement. Although we're still running regular playtests to make sure the levels stay engaging from start to finish. Check out Sinister Laboratory (Mad Lab for short), the Victorian-themed performance we completed first…
- Watch Crawlyard team stream the game development - 2 May 2022
Drop into the stream to say Hi to Vovun, the gameplay designer and Daria, the narrative designer. They will stream Crawlyard development process, show the updates coming to the game's demo including new visual look and gameplay mechanics, discuss the state of roguelike deckbuilders genre and much more! The stream will be on the game page https://store.steampowered.com/app/1637560/Crawlyard/
- Crawlyard participates in Women's Day Steam Event - 7 March 2022
Crawlyard dev team is thrilled to participate in Women's Day Steam Event! Women-led studios are behind some of the most creative, popular & unique games on Steam. With over 200 games made by women-led studios, this Event features games from developers all over the world, with demos and discounts on select titles, plus previews of soon-to-be released games. Meet and say Hi to Daria, our lead narrative designer, and Vovun, the gameplay designer! They will stream the game, discuss the development process and the future of the deckbuilding games.
- Something to perk you up - 23 February 2022
Yo everyone, it’s time to share another big change we work on right now for the game. Enter the PERKS. Capital letters only for the bigger impression. So what is a perk in Crawlyard? Well, I assume you all know what the general idea of perk is, but in general, now you acquire action points (basically this is exp, but we wanted to be fancy) and spend it on perks. What can they do? Everything! Mostly they give you new cards, cause I want to ditch the bored to death “get 1 of 3 cards after each battle” mechanic. But they also can give you passive abilities (i.e. you deal fire attacks on low HP or get bonus armor for each point of damage you get). They also can change cards behavior, and even remove and upgrade cards in your deck. They can give you items, and change the gameplay mechanics in general. And we’re going to unleash our internal creative demons designing the perks. And how intere…
- Big changes vol. 1: Performances - 25 January 2022
Hey guys, it’s time to share the big changes we are working on right now for the game. Without further interruption, let me tell you about our Performances. What? Performances will replace the rooms and affectors system we have currently. Before, you had a straightforward floor layout that contained battle rooms and empty spaces for you to place the affector cards onto. Now, we decided to merge them together, creating the ultimate beast - a proper theatrical performance. It works like this: in the beginning you have a floor with only a starting room and a boss room, and a number of free slots between them (usually, the deeper you go the more slots there will be). You draw performances into your hand just like you did with affectors, and you can place them on the floor map according to your battle strategy or quest requirements. The layout's structure is also non-linear now, which means…
- Crawlyard DevBlog #4 - 8 January 2022
Hey guys, long time no see! Sorry for the long delay between posts, these months were pretty challenging for the development and we had no time to spare. That only means that the game’s becoming even better than it was. Now, for the updates. Stances passive effects Remember the Knight puppet having different stances tied to the main stats? Well, guess what – they now have passive effects that work when you activate a specific stance. Shield stance - blocks one attack per 3 (or maybe 4? not sure) seconds. In the future, we might rework ability cards in a way that will further reduce the blocking cooldown, allowing you to potentially negate EVERYTHING that comes at you. Spear stance - gives you bonus damage based on your speed. That doesn’t really sound that impressive, but hear me out - it also accelerates you while you’re moving. So your first attack will basically be a charge that some…
- Speeding up the Deckbuilding genre - 20 October 2021
Indie-developer and game designer (infamous Mr. Vovun himself) shows the current state of the game, talks about planned features, why the genre needs a twist, shows his cats and tabletop games, and chats with viewers of course.
- Changelog v.0.0.10 - 5 October 2021
Crawlyard Changelog version: 0.0.10 First noticeable build update! Thank you for your feedback on the game's performance as well as your overall impressions and suggestions. We'll be starting with critical errors, of course, but the time for my precious design and usability improvements will surely come right after that. Added Shaman and Architect graphics in the hub area Fixed Main quest progression A bunch of quest and dialogue issues Improved Internal NPC handling Armor formula Game balance Dialogue UI Actions (3D-world) cursors Adjustments to post-processing As always, if you have anything to report or would like to share your general opinion on the game, you can always do so on our official Discord server!
- Crawlyard Demo is out! - 1 October 2021
Welcome to Crawlyard Devlogs! Steam Next Fest is upon us, and this time we have a bit more to show you than screenshots and gifs and sketches. The story prologue is here, and you can download it for free to check out a fraction of what our full game will be able to offer! We will keep polishing the demo and implementing some of the non-crucial changes and fixes in real time, so by the end of Fest the game will definitely become even better. Welcome, Inspector You arrive at the Mansion slightly ahead of schedule. Nobody greets you, and nobody guides you, yet the Mansion still opens up to you somewhat, both figuratively and literally. Your resources are limited, other residents don't quite know what to make of you, and from the meta-narrative perspective, your future is pretty much determined... But would you still like to walk this path with us? The prologue is not essential for you to u…
- Crawlyard DevBlog #3 - 28 August 2021
Welcome to Crawlyard Devlogs! We've been busy preparing for Gamescom, polishing the demo, upgrading the graphics, and implementing new systems. The game evolved immensely since we've last got in contact with the community, we've added a new trailer, updated the game page, started working with voice actors, and so much more. There were lots of themes for a devlog to choose from, but we decided to focus on our beloved puppets for once. Please meet the Knight – your tireless warrior, valiant protector, and the most trusty explorer of the backstage. Stances The Knight rushes straight into battle and is able to soak up a lot of damage. Sounds familiar? Oh, we'll have our fair share of interesting game design decisions, from double stat system to physically replacing parts of your dolls to change its abilities, but we all agreed that the core concept should be simple enough to understand intu…
- Crawlyard DevBlog #2 - 21 July 2021
Welcome to Crawlyard Devlogs! These weeks have been extremely busy for us, but we managed to make plenty of powerful changes, introduce new concepts to the gameplay, work on UI and story (enough to dedicate an entire update to each!) and now steadily continue to add more material to the game. Room layout Certain actions often become a chore after a few hours of repetition. So our tech guys decided to work on the game flow a bit and cut on unnecessary hustle. Here's what it looked like before, when you had to drag every room card one after another to determine your run's layout: And here's how we decided to change it. Some "filler" rooms are now randomly fixed in place, and you can modify them with actual "affectors" – cards that make all these intricate combos work. The player will still have plenty of strategical and tactical freedom in how they build the scene, now with fewer monotono…
- Crawlyard DevBlog #1 - 12 July 2021
Welcome to Crawlyard Devlogs! We are steadily working on the game every single day, and we feel like sharing our creative process might prove to be interesting to our players and fellow developers alike. So, aside from posting progress reports and important public announcements, we'd also like to give you a glimpse into the world behind the stage. Pretty fitting for a game that takes place in theatre, isn't it~ Early character designs Our Mansion attracts unusual people, but for their quirks to truly stand out they have to be offset by more or less regular characters, too. At the beginning, the proportion of "normal" to "abnormal" was roughly 1:1, but the deeper we dive into it, the weirder our designs become. We spent quite some time figuring out the best art style that wouldn't collide with our 3d visuals while being competent enough to stand on its own, attract attention and tell a s…
