Bauble

Overview

Bauble is an action-stealth roguelite about creatures on a young planet where sentience is just emerging across many species at once. You play as a creature just beginning to think: an intrepid Volcano Imp, lost and finding its way home through an otherworldly swamp.

Explore unfamiliar landscapes, figure out who's friend and foe, and use your emerging wits to learn from every new situation.

Gameplay

Bauble is realtime but self-paced. Every territory that you enter is a puzzle, and you have as much time as you want to strategize before jumping in. You can get the drop on a group of creatures and scare them off before they know what’s hit them, throw a ball of fire as a distraction and sneak to the exit, convince a local to let you through, or find another way entirely. There’s a strange and complex ecosystem on this planet, but if you pay close attention you can use your accumulated knowledge to your advantage.

Content

A full expedition spans eight territories, ending with a boss. Expeditions take about 15 minutes, but can be faster or shorter depending on how carefully you want to move. Along the way you'll face hostile creatures, dangerous plants, and collect baubles: pink orbs that give your creature a surge of creativity, forming a new Idea. Ideas are upgrades that make you stronger and shape how you play, and represent your critter's emerging understanding of their place in the world. You can torch everything in sight and sprint through the swamp, or learn the local culture and try to befriend some of these things.

Story

There's a mystery to piece together across expeditions. Everything you encounter gets logged in your Knowledge, an in-game encyclopedia, and each discovery gives your creature new Curiosities, small objectives to chase whenever you feel like it. You might uncover clues in a completely different order than someone else, and putting the pieces together is up to you.

World of Bauble

The world of Bauble is just waking up. Its creatures are becoming sentient, learning to cooperate and make their world better. All that new life has drawn the attention of something ancient, already making its way to this fresh planet...