Crypt Custodian

If you are not familiar, Well Dweller is an indie game by... developed by Kyle Thompson and with a score soundtrack by Eric Thompson.

They're a duo, but he's a solo dev who did games like Crypt Custodian and Islets.

I believe I talked about Crypt Custodian when I played it on this pod as well.

but he makes Metroidvanias.

All of his games have been Metroidvanias, and Well Dweller is no exception.

And if it doesn't feel good then everything else falls apart.

and i can play a game made by one guy crypt custodian or well dweller and those games feel immediately better more responsive more tight more precise i was playing belmont's curse and i was like it just compared to compared to kyle thompson and they felt they felt like amateur it doesn't feel well designed it feels sloppy it feels floaty it feels unresponsive i i don't know I have played so many games like that.

So many.

It's like when you come from Ori 1 and 2 or Sundered or Nine Souls or Shinobi Art of Vengeance.

I was like, this sucks.

This isn't built well.

I've played other Metroidvanias from like, again, like a single person built Crypt Custodian.

It's one of the best Metroidvanias I've ever played.

Yeah

... uh, which was "Crypt Custodian." So Kyle Thompson-

Mm

... he's a kind of solo dev.

The opening credits say Kyle Thompson and then his brother's name, which is also something Thompson.

Um, and, um, he, uh, I think he does the writing, his brother basically, but he-- Kyle does the art and design and programming and all, all the rest of it.

Um, and yeah, I played "Crypt Custodian," uh, last year, uh, and I enjoyed it.

I thought it was a solid kind of top-down action game.

Like, it looks like a storybook, like, that you've opened up 'cause the way the characters move and everything has, like, a certain kind of fluid, you know, kind of mechanic to it, and I thought that was really, really cool.

It seems like, uh, the developer releases a game every couple years because, um, the last game he released was Crypt Custodian, which was, like, overhead Zelda-like, but it was a Metroidvania.

And then before that was Isolates, which was, like, two years before that in '22, which has the same vibes as the Well Dweller, just different art, like, different style, but, like, it's a side-scroller one.

It has hand-drawn art and shit.

Yeah, it's overwhelmingly positive.

There is a demo, too.

Uh, but if, uh, you do wanna get it, it's only $19.99, and there is a bundle that has, uh, Crypt Custodian, which we were talking about earlier, and, uh, this title for, like-

like-Rain World

Yeah.

I started the guy's previous game right after that, uh, Crypt Custodian, which I only played for a little bit, but it seems really good.

But, uh, I spent most of the time between the last episode and this one finishing-

Not playing Ace Combat

They're all overwhelmingly positive, they're all Metroidvanias, and they're all bloody good.

So I was first introduced to Kyle's work with Crypt Custodian, which I loved.

Um-

Mm.

Love Egbert.

There's just a...

And, uh, another thing that I really like which Crypt cus- Crypt Custodian had is that these characters that you meet are very They're, they're very lovable.

This, this is like a world, it's very like this world.

And you don't really expect a Metroidvania story to hit with you.

It's not a big focus of the genre, but Crip Custodian had a story I was into, simple, but I related to it.

Islets, his game before that, was a game about you unite this Metroidvania map.

It's a game about connection.