The central conceit of the Vermis artbook series, by the pseudonymous artist Plastiboo, is that these books are the official guides for video games that never existed. The books showcase a dark fantasy world inspired by old school dungeon crawlers.
Developer Adam Duering created a game based on the artbooks, bringing them to life as a text-parser based dungeon crawler. It recreates the experience of the time: upon entering the game, you must wait for DOS-like interface to load; you must navigate a text interface; you must navigate the dungeons entirely with the keyboard.
It is a true dungeon crawler of the era, and yet things are not quite right: the text squirms on the screen, and there are hints of something more malign in the depths.
The music in the fangame was created by the artist Kobold, drawn from the albums The Valley of Forgotten Secrets and Cave of the Lost Talisman.
You can play Vermis: Lost Dungeons and Forbidden Woods on Itch. You can find Plastiboo’s original books at Hollow Press.
Source: Adam Duehring
Featured Image: Hollow Press
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