I’d never heard of it until now, even though I’ve always had a soft spot for first-person dungeon-crawling RPGs, one of my favorite genres, whether they’re real-time or turn-based. Luckily, this morning I stumbled across Crypts of Carith through a post on Twitter.
It’s a promising first-person RPG that takes us deep into the crypts of Carith to uncover their secrets. The game is being developed by indie studio EverMoore Studios and recently released a demo that I absolutely loved.
Build a Party of Six and Head Underground
The adventure begins in the seemingly peaceful village of Carith, but it does not take long before the journey heads beneath its streets. Sewers, forgotten cellars, tombs, catacombs, and sacred crypts make up the environments players will investigate as increasingly dangerous secrets begin surfacing beneath the settlement.
Exploration involves more than simply walking between encounters, with hidden areas, traps, puzzles, and environmental interactions scattered throughout the underground locations. At the center of the experience is a customizable party of up to six adventurers. Players will be able to mix different species, classes, skills, equipment, and magical abilities.
Traditional archetypes such as warriors, rogues, clerics, and spellcasters are all part of the system, leaving plenty of room for conventional balanced groups or more experimental compositions. Characters can also be swapped in and out as the adventure progresses.
Tactical Turn-Based Combat With a D20 Foundation
Battles are fully turn-based, with positioning, resource management, status effects, and party synergy playing important roles. Characters can attack using melee or ranged weapons, cast offensive and battlefield-control spells, or protect vulnerable companions through defensive and support abilities.
EverMoore Studios is building the game around a D20-style system inspired by classic tabletop role-playing games. The intention is to make its underlying logic immediately recognizable to players familiar with traditional tabletop adventures while adapting those mechanics to work more naturally inside a video game.
That should put character builds and party composition at the heart of the experience. A heavily armored front line may protect more fragile spellcasters, while different combinations of classes and abilities could open alternative ways of handling encounters. Experience gained in battle leads to new abilities and spells, while recovered equipment further expands the options available to the group.
The First Chapter of a Larger RPG Series
One of the more interesting ideas behind Crypts of Carith actually extends beyond the game itself.
It is planned as the opening chapter of the EverMoore Chronicles, a collection of self-contained RPG adventures set throughout the world of Aurelith. Each entry is intended to explore a different region and tell its own story while remaining connected to a broader narrative.
More importantly, characters are persistent between adventures. Players will eventually be able to carry their adventurers into subsequent entries while retaining their experience and equipment.
For players who enjoy the process of refining a party over dozens of encounters, that could become one of the project’s most distinctive features.
A Free Demo Is Available Now
Those interested do not have to judge the concept entirely from screenshots and descriptions. The Crypts of Carith – Chapel Cellar Demo is currently free to play on Steam.
The demo drops players near the beginning of the game’s second optional dungeon and provides a predefined six-character party consisting of a Human Fighter, Dwarf Barbarian, Halfling Thief, Human Cleric, Human Mage, and Half-Elf Illusionist. Unlike the demo, the finished game will allow players to fully customize their party members.
Its playable area consists of a complete dungeon level featuring turn-based encounters, puzzles, and environmental interactions, essentially functioning as a small sample of the structure EverMoore Studios has planned for the full release.
An Old-School RPG Worth Keeping an Eye On
Crypts of Carith is clearly targeting a particular audience. Six-character parties, D20 mechanics, first-person dungeon exploration, grid-based movement, loot, traps, puzzles, and deliberate turn-based battles all point toward an experience heavily influenced by classic computer and tabletop RPG traditions.
The persistent-character concept behind the wider EverMoore Chronicles gives that familiar foundation a more unusual long-term hook, particularly if future adventures expand the world while allowing established parties to continue their journey.
The project is currently being developed primarily by a solo developer at EverMoore Studios, with additional 2D art and audio assistance brought in when resources allow.
No launch window has been announced for the full PC version yet, but with the Chapel Cellar Demo now available, dungeon-crawling RPG fans can already see whether Carith’s underground passages are worth adding to their watchlist.
