This indie dev's dungeon crawling 'descent into madness' was inspired by motherly love

There are all kinds of ways to show gratitude to your parents. It might be weekly calls, monthly visits, or a heartfelt Mother's Day card. Or, if you're indie developer Christopher Yabsley, you might honor your mother and the cherished memories you've shared by developing Heathen, an upcoming dark fantasy dungeon crawler featuring "a descent into madness" and "an ancient horror never meant for mortal eyes."

We're a few weeks past Mother's Day at this point, but I'm sure Yabsley's mom is touched by the gesture regardless.

Earlier this week, Yabsley released an initial Heathen devlog video on YouTube—a video he says was mostly made "for my mum, but you can watch it too I guess." In it, he explains how Heathen was inspired by bringing home a PlayStation copy of Diablo 1 in 1998 after playing it on a friend's PC and discovering that the console port could be played in co-op.

As one does, Yabsley said he asked his mom for help—despite the fact that, to his knowledge, she had never played a videogame before and indeed hasn't since. Descending beneath Tristram cathedral for a mother-son dungeon delve as a warrior/rogue duo, Yabsley was the rogue. Mothers are, as ever, the strongest among us.

After what he calls "a fever dream of killing monsters, smashing barrels, the Butcher, loot—so much loot," Yabsley said he and his mom ultimately succeeded in vanquishing Diablo at 3:00 am on a schoolnight. "She played it just to connect with me," he said, "and it's a memory I'll always cherish."

Now a game developer with a few releases under his belt, Yabsley's channeling those cherished memories in Heathen—a game that looks considerably darker than its heartwarming origin story would suggest. It's a first-person dungeon crawler with Vermintide-inspired melee combat, ARPG-style randomized loot, and best of all, a Dark Messiah kick that you can change the damage type of by equipping different boots.

And compared to its inspirations, Heathen is leaning into a similarly grim atmosphere: "The air thickens with the stench of death. Unspeakable creatures crawl through the darkness," its Steam description says. "You are nothing more than a flickering lantern in the void."

Heathen doesn't have a release date yet, but we'll all have the option of embarking on mother-son dungeon crawls of our own once it eventually launches in early access.

"The game will have online co-op," Yabsley said. "And you can bet that when it's all done and finished, I'll be calling upon my trusted dungeonering partner—my mom—to delve into the dungeons once again."

You can wishlist Heathen on Steam now.

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