Arctomys

Welcome To Arctomys Cave! 

Adventure guaranteed! Survival? Not so much...

What started as a hike through a provincial park has become an adventure of preposterous proportions. Can our hero use their wits, their dexterity, and the tools they find along the way, to escape the surprisingly sprawling world of Arctomys Cave

Arctomys is a challenging, exploration based puzzle platformer that was born from the dev team’s love of the games of their childhood. From pixel classics to the flash games we played instead of doing our homework, to the modern classics, we love them all, and put that love into every second of ARCTOMYS CAVE. 

The Premise

What was supposed to be a simple hike has become the adventure, and possible the end, of your life! A downed sign, a closed road, and a mysterious cloaked figure, have all lead to you entering Arctomys Cave. Now, with the way behind you caved in, and only a rusty old  grappling hook and a talking groundhog to help you navigate, do you have what it takes to uncover the mystery that hides below your feet? Can you save the groundhog people who call the caves their home?

 

The Gameplay

Arctomys is focused on traversal, momentum, and puzzle solving, Explore every corner of the cave, find hidden secrets, open locked doors, turn on ancient machines, but careful not to wake what lurks in the deep....

 Upgrade your trusty grappling hook, or perhaps find new ways of traversing the cavern!  Help the denizens of the cave! The Groundhogs of Arctomys are far more advanced than their prairie cousins let on.  Perhaps if you help them, and delve a little deeper, they may help you escape too!

 Just... avoid the bugs... ever since the Groundhogs started messing around with that strange pink crystal... the one that glows.... The insects of the cave have been acting more agitated... and seem to be growing at an astonishing rate. That's probably fine though, right?

 These bugs are getting so large that it might be a good idea to avoid them if you cherish your limbs. You're no Italian plumber, so jumping on their heads isn't likely to do much other than tick them off. Strategy, mobility, and cunning are the names of the game.

The World

The world of Arctomys is inspired by the fantastic worlds and realms of our favourite childhood games, shows, movies and books, as well as the real world Cave, located in Mount Robson Provincial Park, British Colombia.

To uncover the story, and save yourself, you will have to traverse long forgotten ancient aqueducts,  explore the surprisingly advanced groundhog town of the Warren, brave the icy peak of the mountain to talk with the shrouded Marmonks of the temple, and finally travel to the fiery heart of the mountain to face the mysterious figure at the center of everything. 

The Team

Quillion Games is a  Canadian collective of artists, developers, writers and designers who have one thing in common; a love of games and gaming. When the process of creating Arctomys began, before we even officially became a team, we all sat down and discussed not just our favourite games, but the parts of the pixel platformer genre we loved.  We each made lists of our favourite pixel-platformer games, and came together to talk about what part of each game made it our favourites

The Making Of

First we decided the must-haves in order for this game to even be considered part of the genre; puzzle rooms, boss fights, satisfying exploration, rewarding pickups and a fun, engaging story were just the start of that list. We tried to put our love of these games into every second of Arctomys, and we hope it shows. As a matter of fact, we might have even hidden some collectible references to our favourite inspirations throughout our cave, for those eagle-eyed explorers amongst you. Can you find them all?

Then we started talking about what parts of each game stood out to us; the breakable walls of Castlevania, the hidden challenge rooms of Shovel Knight, The Level design of The Messenger, the atmosphere of Animal Well and, of course, the tough-as-nails platforming of Celeste, to name just a few. 

Rather than mimic our favourite games, we sought to evoke the feeling we got when we played them the first time. These amazing worlds, wonderful characters, sometimes frustratingly difficult, but always rewarding challenges, that shaped our childhoods. 

 Our goal for Arctomys isn't to redefine a genre, or even improve on those that came before us, but rather to say thank you. Thank you to those who inspired us to play, and build, and explore, the amazing worlds they made for us. 

Conclusion?

Arctomys is an ongoing project. We will continue to work on creating a fun and exciting world, and can't wait for you to explore with us! All updates will be posted here, or on our Discord! Follow along as we continue to build and design!

For now, we hope you enjoy our demo! This is a proof of concept and mechanic build of the first part of the first level. Think of it as a cold open to the rest of the game! 

Enjoy! And thank you for checking out Arctomys!