Dustforce dev announces first-person platformer Spire

As someone who largely skipped consoles growing up, the countless modern indie platformers inspired by the likes of Super Mario Bros. and Metroid hold no nostalgic draw for me. But hearing Dustforce developer Team Hitbox cite Quake 3's dizzying potential for "majestic moves" as an influence upon its new platformer Spire, now that makes my nostalgia gland fizz all right.

The first-person action-platformer will have players ascending a mysterious procedurally-generated tower, filled with curious items and enemies. "We want to make Spire a game where it's fun to watch extremely skilled players as they sprint around dashing off walls while switching items and combining their effects in clever ways," the announcement explains.

Spire will have a flow to its generated content, not simple randomisation. "If the generator has created a dangerous, frantic sequence with lots of combat, it might think to then generate a scene with lower intensity to better control the emotional arc of the experience," Hitbox says.

So players can really show off, Hitbox will hold weekly challenges on a spire generated with one particular seed, so everyone on the leaderboard has the same challenge. For the truly great, it'll also offer leaderboards for different "burdens" you take on, making Spire more difficult.

Check out the full announcement because it sounds fascinating, but for now here's a Quake 3 video Hitbox highlights, saying "we want to let people achieve comparable levels of skill."