Roving in the Dark

Roving in the Dark is a cave exploration platformer set in 1996. You play as a bearded caver known as “Local Spelunker,” tasked with rescuing ill-equipped treasure-seekers while searching for treasure hidden by a medieval thief for the local museum.

Explore the caves

After losing most of your equipment, you begin with only the ability to run, jump and climb up and down narrow passages. You find pieces of your gear as you explore, which open access to new areas. The cave hazards include slippery ground, holes, falling stones, extreme cold and running out of batteries. Foreign cavers can also push you in, and navigating the passages without your climbing gear makes exploration difficult.

The game includes four cave systems, an overworld, and smaller locations such as towns and lone houses.

8-bit presentation

Roving in the Dark uses tiny pixel art, a limited colour palette and low resolution, drawing on the limitations of 8-bit-era games. It has no in-game music; instead, it uses 8-bit ambient sounds.