Play the hero or control the monsters in PS4 dungeon brawler Crawl, out 11th April

Hey PlayStation fans! This is Barney from Powerhoof, a two-man independent studio from Melbourne Australia, and I’m excited to announce our crazy dungeon brawler Crawl is coming to PS4 on 11th April!

I love playing as a hero fighting through dungeons, but with Crawl we thought it would be even more fun if you could play as the bad guys too. You can be the daring adventurer searching for loot and powerful magic items, leveling up and slaying monsters, but you can also be the vicious demon, tentacled beast, or undead sorcerer who stands against them!

Crawl lets you battle giant hulking bosses, or control those bosses yourself to crush the pesky adventurers where they stand! We’re big fans of local multiplayer, so we let you bring some buddies if you want to control the boss together, or get competitive and play the hero while your friends control the traps and monsters to destroy you… dungeons can be very devious with your sneaky real-life friends at the controls!

The idea for Crawl grew out of a casual game-jam we organize with friends. The jam was meant as a little escape from serious game development, where we could make some silly games to fill with jokey images of each other in ridiculous situations, but it wound up a great environment to toy with experimental game ideas.

Our first play-session with the rough Crawl prototype was a blast. Despite how crude and half-built it was at that stage, there was laughter, strategizing, and all sorts of general silliness to be had. Playing a dungeon crawler from the enemy point of view felt novel, and combat can be especially silly when the monsters are your real-life buddies right there on the couch, teasing and laughing and teaming-up.

Over the past three-and-a-half years we’ve been hard at work building on that idea. We now have over sixty monster types, each with unique mechanics to master. You can inhabit everything from giant rats and spiders, to witches turning heroes into frogs, tentacled wizards teleporting at will, or necromancers commanding zombie armies.

When you’re not battling the hero as a monster, you can haunt the dungeon around him. Rattle chains, throw furniture, bring paintings to life, or control vicious traps. From crossbows to spikes and giant saw blades, everything you’ve come to expect from a dungeon crawler can now be experienced from the other point-of-view.

Ever wanted to control the final boss? That cyclops or hydra, or enormous hulking statue? End bosses are so cool to me, I’ve always wanted to take one for a spin. With Crawl you get to see what it’s like firing those crazy-powerful boss weapons, or to have your vulnerable point under attack from a sneaky little hero. Throw beams, flames and goo, turn heroes into chickens or crush them with your giant hands. You can be the boss, or you can be the sneaky little hero who stands against them!

PlayStation is the perfect way to bring all this arcadey dungeon-battling silliness to the couch, and we really hope you get a kick out of it!