
I created Caves of Lore because of my deep love for RPGs. This project took me 6 years to make and I learned a lot about coding, art, and storytelling. If you reach the end then be sure to let me know! Caves has deep combat, classic-styled pixel art, and (of course) LORE! 📖
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About
New Game Plus Mode
Caves of Lore is now updated with New Game Plus Mode, giving you more ways to continue, rebuild, and replay after completing the game.
After finishing the game, you can restart with bonuses from your last game or continue the game without restarting. New Game Plus lets you carry forward permanent stat increases, some memorized abilities and spells, previously unlocked traits, and equipped necklaces and rings.
You may choose to reuse your stats or re-roll them for a fresh approach while keeping permanent gains.
This update also adds new equipment options. Necklaces now have Resonance, which increases damage when worn with other items made from similar materials. Enchantments can now be destroyed, giving you more control over your gear and builds.
MY JOURNEY MAKING THIS GAME
I'm a self-taught solo-dev who built this passion project over 6 years while holding down a full time job and raising a family. I dedicated myself to work 5 minutes a day no matter what, and built the game piece by piece, not really knowing where I was going or how it would all end.
CAVES OF LORE
Caves of Lore is a turn-based, pixel-art, fantasy CRPG that combines elements of environmental exploration and character interaction with tactical, grid-based combat.
Fun and weird adventures await as you progress through a world full of monsters and humor. Hidden secrets and strange powers abound, allowing for a highly customizable party. Vast amounts of loot and treasure constantly increase your power, while dialogue, books and lore are waiting for those who want to be drawn into the world further.
Dark themes and ancient horrors don’t keep this game from remaining upbeat and funny, with a story that unfolds in unexpected ways. Tactical combat, endless magical item combos, and a vast array of spells, abilities and traits make for great replay value.
6 character capacity party, 65+ spells, 65+ abilities, 65+ traits, 50+ monsters, 40+ NPCs , 30+ quests, and 20+ areas to explore. Hundreds of items and tens of thousands of enchantment combinations make for all manner of powerful items.
Stats
All-time low is the lowest price we've recorded for this game since we started tracking it.
Languages: English
Engagement
Hours played at review time, across 41 reviews with recorded playtime.
Reviews
Themes across 41 recent reviews and how positive each mention is. A keyword signal, not full sentiment analysis.
positive critical· bar length = how often the theme comes up
Reviews
It went from [i]amazing[/i] to [i]dissapointing[/i] in a few hours. ✔ varied, hand-crafted world ✔ no hand-holding, you have to read what NPCs say where the environment pushes you to go ? increasing damage comes mostly from using the same skill over and over. Have fun using a weak spell to level it up. You can also force a party member to train, but they leave your party! Why would I do that? ? exploration is rewarded with secret paths and stashes... except that I never found anything actually cool or useful (except a few spellbooks at the beginning to learn magic from) so there is no payoff ✘ so much pointless, repetitive combat ✘ the only viable strategy is to stun-lock as many enemies as you can and deal maximum damage before you run out of mana. Tanking damage is not viable. I couldn't even wear any plate armour, because I made a spellcaster and other PCs aren't good at anything in particular. I doubt that would help much though, there is too much damage coming your way. Special abilities are also a waste of a turn ✘ wasting my time with breaking camp to regen in a safe place after almost every fight. Or having NPCs oversleep so even when you go to an inn, sleep until morning and go back to see that the person is still in their bed and cannot be talked to! Could have been good. 80-90% less combat, but with each encounter designed to be interesting. Better rewards for progress and exploration. Things that seem to be promised at the start, before the game devolves into its worst components.
This game is scratching a gaming itch I've had for a while. Interesting world with fun combat and an engaging magic system.
Very nice RPG, some mechanics are a little sketchy, but very enjoyable.
На удивление насыщенная и оригинальная по стилистике и механикам ролевая игра с пошаговыми боями. Сюжет, который с начала выглядит как поиск выхода из пещер случайно свалившегося туда пастуха, со временем становится все более закрученным. Есть все возможности для билдов воина ближнего боя с одно- или двуручным оружием, лучника, мага. Разнообразных, и в том числе не боевых, заклинаний в игре много. К сожалению баланс боевых сильно страдает - самым убойным оказывается простейшая magic missile. Компаньонов в игре больше, чем может вместить партия, а некоторые даже не люди. Есть механики улучшения снаряжения, наложения и перенесения магических бонусов с предметов. Игра просто напичкана секретами, и, если некоторые из которых требуют просто прокачанного навыка наблюдательности, для других понадобится внимательно читать найденные книги и записки. Боев в игре, на мой взгляд, даже слишком много. Особенно многочисленными однообразными группами монстров набиты катакомбы под библиотекой, хорошо, что есть возможность полностью выключить их возрождение в настройках. Из минусов - некоторые элементы игры до сих пор довольно корявые. Так, структура меню оставляет желать много лучшего, важная внутриигровая информация почему-то приведена в экране настроек; нет возможности поставить на быстрые кнопки часто используемые действия; нет возможности установить пару наборов оружия и менять их быстро - каждый раз приходится лезть в плохо сортируемый инвентарь, искать нужный предмет и надевать его, что в середине игры приходится делать часто, учитывая уязвимость/устойчивость монстров к разным видам урона; "перековывать" один и тот же предмет, и даже якобы не перековываемый, в один и тот же металл можно многократно, постоянно улучшая его свойства; и многие другие мелкие, но довольно легко исправляемые недоработки. Тем не менее, это неожиданно одна из лучших ролевых игр 23 года.
game is good. it is kind of old school, not only because of its graphics. there are some issues though: - kind of buggy. from time to time glitches software exceptions or other glitches happen. - at some point of time you can get sick and really tired of meaningless fights. sure, you can try to avoid them... but still. - light spell needs to be renewed after map change, teleport, fight and frequently after rest too. and you will rest a lot. this is so **** tiresome. - quest progression status is often really meaningless. almost like author despite this all love for RPGs is teasing us. despite all of that game is fun, and delivers.
Horrible interface, strange controls. It's not intuitive at all
Straightforward old school CRPG. Don't be fooled by the retro graphics, it has a fair level of depth.
日本語を・・・誰でもいい誰か日本語をくれ・・・
I set some controller preferences and entered the game. The preferences I'd set weren't working, and I could find no way to escape back to the game menu, I was stuck in the beginning combat. The Esc key did not work. No key I tried worked. Game refunded.
:- )
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Trends
Modeled estimate over time, reconstructed from Steam's monthly review histogram.
Audience
Estimated from the language of this game's reviews — a proxy for where players are, not official Steam demographics.
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