Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Miasma Caves’

Review Fix chats with the founder of Windy Games and Miasma Caves developer, Adam Michaan, who discusses the intuiting rogue-lite and lets us know who will enjoy it the most.

Review Fix: How was Miasma Caves born?

Adam Michaan: The original idea came from how I played Minecraft. I would find a cave and go down exploring it until I found diamonds and had to find a way back out. And nothing else in the cave mattered. So we expanded on the joy of exploration and discovery being the main focus. Through development lots of things changed, but the main idea of not having combat has always been an important aspect.

Review Fix: What was development like?

Michaan: Development was long but it was good. We didn’t crunch. It did add extra time but we thought it was important to have a good work/life balance for everyone. Having our life and hobbies outside of working on Miasma Caves kept us fresh and ready to get stuff done. 

Review Fix: What makes Miasma Caves special?

Michaan: I think the most unique part of Miasma Caves is the pacifist focus in a normally combat based genre. It lets people explore a different part of gameplay more. 

Review Fix: What games influenced this one the most?

Michaan: There were a lot of games that we took influences from, some of the bigger ones were Minecraft, Recettear, Azure Dreams, Brave Fencer Musashi and Dark Cloud. A lot of inspiration came from PlayStation era ideas that we wanted to bring back, and combined with world and exploration ideas from Minecraft is what we used. 

Review Fix: Any fun stories or wild moments during development?

Michaan: One fun time story was when we all went on a trip to get a cave tour. It started as a normal walking tour with a lot of great information on the caves. Then when we got deeper we got to climb through parts of the cave and do a sample spelunking adventure. Through it we got a lot of great references and ideas for our caves.

Review Fix: Do you think preserving older gameplay mechanics in new games is important?

Michaan: I think there’s room for keeping old mechanics in new games, but it’s important to make sure it fits what the new game is. Just because it worked previously isn’t reason enough to keep using it if it doesn’t fit a specific project. But that doesn’t mean it wont be good for a different new project.

Review Fix: What’s your favorite memory as a gamer?

Michaan: My favorite memories was back when I played Everquest, going on random adventures with my friends. I don’t have a specific time more memorable than the others, it was the times we would go to random dungeons and just explore and wander around them for hours, with The Tower of Frozen Shadow being one we visited a lot.

Review Fix: Who will enjoy Miasma Caves the most?

Michaan: People with a natural sense of curiosity will really enjoy it. The game has a big focus on exploration and discovery, so there will be plenty to find for those who like to look and we will be continuing to add more as we go.

Review Fix: Bottom Line, why must someone play Miasma Caves?

Michaan: People should play Miasma Caves because it will give them a different style of gameplay than they are used to, and will help encourage a new way to explore games and curiosity that they can bring back to other games they enjoy too.

Review Fix: How do you want Miasma Caves to be remembered?

Michaan: I would like Miasma Caves to be something people could remember fondly years later after playing.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Michaan: Our Early Access release was just the beginning, we’re going to keep working on Miasma Caves for a while. We’re planning to add a lot more to the game, more townsfolk, animals, bigger caves, more kinds of caves, and more things to find. There’s a lot more we want to do with Miasma Caves, so it will stay our focus. 

Review Fix: Anything else you’d like to add?

Michaan: I hope everyone that tries Miasma Cave enjoys it and stays with it as we continue adding things.