Hello, everyone! We’re happy to announce that the dungeon is open TODAY! Cramped Room of Death is now available for everyone to play.
It might look like a dungeon crawler, but Cramped Room of Death is actually a brain-teasing puzzle game. Your character, the brave adventurer Lance, carries a huge spear that barely fits through the narrow pathways of a complex dungeon. To clear each room, Lance has to figure out the specific steps that will allow him to jab all the enemies without getting shot by an arrow, slashed, chopped, crushed, trapped... or worse!
It's a blast to play, but it's also a lot of fun to watch someone else play it—when you "see" the solution before the player does, you'll be cracking up at all their mistakes! We hope you enjoy Cramped Room of Death, and please be careful in the dungeons!
Hi, I’m Peter Tieryas, and I’m the narrative director at Nicalis. I’d like to tell you a little bit about the playable character in Cramped Room of Death.
A big part of writing for games is answering questions. For Cramped Room of Death, the questions revolved around the game's protagonist. You've probably seen him in the trailers, screenshots and promotional artwork—he's the guy in the suit of armor, with his long, red hair in a ponytail. Who is he? How did he end up in the dungeon? Why is he carrying that big spear instead of some other weapon? Who are his enemies, and what are they up to?
While Cramped Room of Death was in development, we realized that Hafiz, the game's designer, had not yet answered any of these questions. So I was given the task to add a bit of spice by coming up with some backstory. Our hero didn't even have a name!
There were a few different ways I could have approached this, but I kept in mind that the team felt it was important to keep a light-hearted spirit. I quickly thought up a few different scenarios, trying to be faithful to Hafiz’s vision for the game. The scenario that resonated the most was that our hero was an adventurer who liked to party a little too much and ended up getting his treasure stolen. The skeleton army also took all of his weapons... everything except his family spear, because they knew it wouldn’t fit in their dungeon lair.
A simple plot, but it explained why he carries a spear into the cramped rooms. It also made him more heroic and sympathetic—he’s not some cruel plunderer, he’s just trying to get his stuff back! Hafiz liked it, so it was decided. The approved story led us to some new questions... like, “Why can’t he just pick up a weapon from one of the Vizardians after he gets ‘em with the spear?” (Our internal answer: The Vizardian weapons are cursed.)
Brevity is sometimes an art, and conveying lore through just a few quick screens can sometimes be as challenging as writing a longer cinematic. Classic retro games were able to convey plot and character through just a few still screens like in Brandish and Phantasy Star II. In the same way (while also keeping in mind the “Cramped Room” spirit of the game), I tried to encapsulate the tragedy of the cursed Vizardians in a few cutscene panels, while also maintaining a quirky and light-hearted tone. I also took inspiration, oddly enough, from The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. The ending is a meta-nod to the cyclical nature of gaming.
Of course, writing doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The art team was wonderful and vividly brought the scenes to life. Production gave really great feedback with directions on how the cinematic worked in the context of the game. One thing we struggled with was the main character’s name. We wanted a name that felt classic but also could have a contemporary ring to it. We finally settled on Lance.
I’m excited about Cramped Room of Death and can’t wait for all of you to play it. Some of the puzzles are real brain-teasers, and I love how every room forces me to think about and plan every step. I hope you’ll find the story a fun complement to the gameplay.
So far, we’ve introduced you to three different types of levels in Cramped Room of Death: the Dungeon, the Sewer and the Forge. As you may have noticed, each level has its own set of traps to disrupt Lance’s journey.
Today, we’ll introduce you to the game’s final challenge: the Volcano level, with boiling hot lava flowing all around. Be warned—the lava is not the only special thing about the Volcano stages. They also feature ALL the different types of traps you’ve seen in the previous levels!
Slippery tiles from the Sewer, weights from the Forge, spikes from the Dungeon... they’re all here and more. You’ll have to think more carefully when playing this level, because some of these traps can actually interact with each other.
For example, when you push a weight into an area with slippery tiles, the weight will slide, just like you! See how Lance safely blocks the archer’s view by pushing a weight across the puddle between them?
However, not all the interactions will work in your favor. Here we see Lance thoughtlessly pushing a spiked object over a weight trap. With his next move, the weight trap destroys the spiked object. Oops! Now Lance doesn’t have a way to keep the Vizardian with the spear from turning to face him!
That’s all we can show you today. Stay tuned for more exciting Cramped Room of Death news, and be sure to add Cramped Room of Death to your wishlist so you’ll get notified when it becomes available. The doors open on July 19th!
We are excited to announce that our puzzle adventure game, Cramped Room of Death, now has an official release date. The game will be ready for you to play on July 19th, 2023!
For those of you who are hearing about Cramped Room of Death for the first time: It’s a game in which you have to use a giant spear to defeat enemies and collect treasure in tight and deadly rooms. You have to plan your moves carefully, as each room has different traps, obstacles and enemies that can kill you in one hit—and the spear is so huge, it’s often more hindrance than help!
Can you navigate the deadly catacombs and recover your stolen possessions? If you like challenging puzzle gameplay, dungeon crawling and/or charming pixel art, you’ll love Cramped Room of Death!
Thanks to all of you for the support and encouragement. Please stay tuned for more updates, and be sure to add Cramped Room of Death to your wishlist so you’ll get notified when it becomes available. The doors open on July 19th!
In our last post, we introduced you to the Sewer levels and their slippy-slidey dangers. Today, we’re going to take a look at another environment called the Forge.
In the Forge levels, you’re back to more “stable” ground. But here you’ll face new types of obstacles: movable objects that you can push with your body or your spear.
Some of these objects have spikes around them, so you’ll need to use your spear to push them safely. But be careful—moving these objects prematurely can block your way to the exit!
You’ll also notice that the rooms are more cramped than the Sewer levels. With less space to move around and more hazards to avoid, you’ll have to rely on careful planning and stone-cold logic to navigate through the narrow corridors and platforms.
That’s it for today! Stay tuned for more exciting Cramped Room of Death news, and don’t forget to add the game to your Steam wishlist to get the latest updates!
You may have noticed some rooms in the Cramped Room of Death trailer that don’t look very cramped at all. The fact is that there are some wide-open spaces in the Sewer area that definitely give you more room to move around. But there is a catch!
You see, the Sewer has a very slick, slime-covered floor that completely changes the way the game is played. When you move from one tile to the next, the floor is so slippery that you will continue to move in that direction until something (or someone) stops you!
There are some Vizardians in the Sewer levels that are very hard to defeat without careful planning; you’ll find yourself sliding right past them as you try to figure out how to get your spear pointing in the right direction. There are also some rooms that are hard to leave—even after defeating all the enemies and unlocking the exit—because you have to follow very specific steps just to get yourself lined up with the door!
You can’t turn to face a different direction while you’re sliding, so you’ll have to consider your orientation before you take a step. Fortunately, your spear is very useful for controlling your movements in the Sewer. If you slide forward in the direction of a wall, the spear will stop you before you reach it—which is especially handy when that wall is covered in sharp spikes! If you’re sliding sideways, you’ll stop when the protruding spear makes contact with any obstacle or enemy.
The slippery Sewer levels are just one example of the surprises that await you in Cramped Room of Death. Don’t forget to add the game to your Steam wishlist!
To show you exactly how the game works, we thought it would be fun to take a close look at one room in Cramped Room of Death and walk you through the process of figuring out how to get through it.
This is room 17 in the game’s first area, the Dungeon. As you can see, you can’t even walk forward from the starting point, because your spear is too big.
You can step to the right... but this puts you in the path of a Vizardian archer. That red line indicates the path his arrow will take immediately after your next move. If you step up to try to engage him, it’s “game over”!
The only way to progress is to immediately move to the right, out of the archer’s line of sight. But here’s where it gets even trickier. See those broken floor tiles? You can stand on them, but your next move will cause them to break. And we mean ANY move—if you attack an enemy, or even just turn to face a different direction, you’re going down with the debris! So your next move HAS to be stepping off.
Now, the Vizardian with the short sword will slash you if you step into any adjacent space. Fortunately, he only attacks in the four cardinal directions (he can’t attack diagonally), so it’s safe to step on the tile at his lower left. But that’s a broken tile, and you know what that means!
The only place you can go from here is to the left, which puts you back in the path of the archer. Here’s the good news: If you’re in range to attack an archer while you’re in the red line, your attack will always take priority, because your spear is so friggin’ huge. That means you’ll take him out before he shoots you with the arrow. The trick here is to make sure you’re already facing in the “up” direction when you step into his path, because his arrow will end you if you have to make an extra move to turn and face him.
With the first archer out of the way, you can now step up to take out the swordsman and the second archer from a safe distance to unlock the exit.
This is one of the easier puzzles in Cramped Room of Death. As you progress, they get more clever and more fiendish, with new enemy types, new obstacles and new challenges. But if you keep your wits about you, no Vizardians will be able to keep you from reclaiming your stolen treasure!
Just a quick update to let you know about some of the new stuff that’s being added to Cramped Room of Death. If you played the demo, you’ll find that the finished game is much more polished and feature-packed!
Additions include, but are not limited to:
• More levels to play (which means, of course, more puzzles to solve and more fun to be had)
• Some pixel art refinement and expansion
• Unlockable contents, including alternate character skins
• A compelling storyline, told in brief cutscenes with all-new in-game artwork
• Hidden secrets to discover
That’s the good news. The not-so-good news is that the game won’t be quite ready for release in the fourth quarter of 2022, as previously announced. But it’s very close to a finished state and is certainly on track for a first-quarter 2023 launch... so you’ll get the best possible version of your next favorite game without having to wait too much longer.
Please add Cramped Room of Death to your Steam wishlist and look forward to the finished game!
Hello everyone! Hafiz here with some exciting news for Cramped Room of Death!
I have some big news to announce regarding Cramped Room of Death. I'm teaming up with Nicalis to bring the game to a bigger audience and release it on multiple platforms in the fourth quarter of 2022! We'll be bringing you more updates here on Steam and showing off the latest builds as we get closer to the release date.
If you haven't heard of the game, we invite you to explore the hazardous dungeons of Cramped Room of Death—it's a puzzle adventure with unprecedented challenges!
Use your spear to defeat enemies and collect treasure, but plan your moves carefully—each room has tight turns, deadly traps and no margin for error.
Check out the trailer for a taste of the frantic action:
Watch this space for more information in the coming weeks, and please be sure to add CRAMPED ROOM OF DEATH to your Steam Wishlist!
Hello everyone! It's been one year since Cramped Room of Death free demo was released.
There's plenty of interesting addition to the game at this stage. The visual of the game has been completely refreshed for all of the levels. The levels is now grouped into five areas, with each area has their own theme. Additionally, each theme has their own core puzzle mechanic.
The puzzle is getting bigger for each level, it is almost two or three times longer to beat a level than what was presented in the demo level. The total number of levels also has been almost doubled from what was initially planned.
Slippery tiles from the Sewer, weights from the Forge, spikes from the Dungeon... they’re all here and more. You’ll have to think more carefully when playing this level, because some of these traps can actually interact with each other.
For example, when you push a weight into an area with slippery tiles, the weight will slide, just like you! See how Lance safely blocks the archer’s view by pushing a weight across the puddle between them? 
However, not all the interactions will work in your favor. Here we see Lance thoughtlessly pushing a spiked object over a weight trap. With his next move, the weight trap destroys the spiked object. Oops! Now Lance doesn’t have a way to keep the Vizardian with the spear from turning to face him!
That’s all we can show you today. Stay tuned for more exciting 
