Game
Smintheus
Genre
Action-Adventure / Puzzle
Developer
Henrik Chukhran
Based in Uzhhorod, Ukraine
Release Date
11 November, 2021
Platforms
PC
- Windows: XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, 11
- Linux: Debian 10, Ubuntu 20.04, Manjaro, Arch
Availability
Price
4.99 USD
How long?
50-75 hours
Languages
English
Website
Social
Game Page
Blog
http://www.neutonmouse.com/blog
Press Contact
Welcome to the Smintheus Press page. If you need any additional information posted to this page or would like anything provided in a different format, let me know and I'll make it available.
There might be updates and extra additions. It would be best advised to check this page one more time before publishing your work.
Trailer
The Pitch
Dive into bizarre world of Smintheus and take a role of young craftsman Gerald who tries his best to survive the chase lead by his former friend - Lanky the cat. It seems like nothing is capable of stopping this mad and frantic cat, leaving escape as only option for survival.
But even that won't last forever - only hope is to rely on ones wits. Help Gerald survive the chase and lead him to the freedom!
Description
Smintheus is action-adventure / puzzle game where you craft gadgets to overcome obstacles, fight enemies, manipulate environment and various creatures while being chased by crazy, but powerful cat whose life purpose is to capture you and kick your butt for no good reason.
Game is a hybrid of classical puzzle, adventure with RPG and survival elements including experimental twists inspired by various PC games of 90s.
Story
Gerald the mouse, a young craftsman, was forced to leave his home village due to danger emanating from the local dweller, Lanky the cat. Gerald and Lanky used to be friends, but that quickly ended after something radically changed Lanky. The cat simply became obsessed with destroying the poor mouse without giving any explanations for his hateful desire. With failed attempts to fight the cat there was nothing left to do for Gerald but to run away for his life.
Features
Majestic World of Smintheus
Explore majestic and beautiful fantasy world of Smintheus. Your adventures will cover 4 unique worlds: mystical wastelands, abandoned mines, mountain sewers as well as magical forest.
Art of Gadgeteer
Embrace the power of the gadgets. With nearly 24 gadgets at your disposal, use them to solve riddles, overcome obstacles, escape danger, fight foes or simply make your life of an adventurer much comfortable.
You're Being Hunted!
Your former feline pal desires to destroy you no matter what the cost. Wherever you go, he goes. Given that there is no way to beat the cat, you can only only hope to outsmart him.
The Path of Warrior
You're not just a craftsman, but someone who knows how to stand up for himself. Use your tools against those who dare to stand on your way.
Survival of the Wittiest
The world is full of riddles and puzzles of all kinds ranging from classical puzzles that requires manipulation of boxes, levers, switches and gates to gadget based puzzles where one often needs to combine couple of gadgets together to solve a riddle.
Retrospective Sound
Experience colorful soundtrack inspired by the late 80s music. Each moment of adventure has its own dedicated tune.
History
The project started somewhere in February, 2015.
In april of 2016, Smintheus enters Steam Greenlight and even thought it got greenlit, the author decided that the project is a cringe is far from a decent game and thus continued development.
I mean... look at it!
Two years later, the beta version launches on Itch.io gathering 2k downloads. During that year, the game received a lot of feedback of all kinds and even small press coverage. It helped a lot to shape the game to the state that it is now.
On 5th of February, 2020, the game finally appears on Steam for wishlisting. This tweet serves as a development milestone, leading the game to the final stage.
The Future
These are the future plans for the game which will be materialized after steam release:
A man can dream...
- Port to MacOS
- Port game to ARM systems (Windows and Linux) (Raspberry Pi)
- Release game on GOG.
- Release game on Itch IO.
- Port and release on Switch / Playstation / XBox.
- Port to Android / iOs and release on appstores.
- Add modding support.
- Publish level editor.
Videos
Download - presskit-smintheus-videos.zip (64.1mb)
Screenshots
Get more screenshots with better quality in the following pack (uncompressed):
Download - presskit-smintheus-screenshots.zip (106.8mb)
Assets
Headers:
Icon:
Logo:
Capsules:
Download - presskit-smintheus-assets.zip (10.4mb)
Files
Download everything:
Download - presskit-smintheus-all.zip (181.3mb)
Or download separately:
Download - presskit-smintheus-videos.zip (64.1mb)
Download - presskit-smintheus-screenshots.zip (106.8mb)
Download - presskit-smintheus-assets.zip (10.4mb)
Quotes
“It’s a lot like some HD reinterpretation of some of the better games from the glorious shareware era — an era that produced games as disparate as ZZT and Commander Keen. Smintheus feels like it benefits from the *pedigree* of that era, if that makes any sense. It’s worth a look, very worthy of the title “computering game”. There seems to be something distinctly pretty about it, hard to describe”
ogopogo's comment on Rock, Paper, Shotgun
“If you’re in for a simple and cute little indie puzzler, Smintheus is worth a try. It features gorgeous artwork with easy puzzles and the element of exploration. Crafting and survival elements are also used lightly throughout the game so it feels almost like an RPG.”
Awards
Not yet :(
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Geeky Technical Stuff
It took 6 years to develop Smintheus. Whole game and its content was developed by one developer. Fonts, that were used to render texts, being the only exception here.
Game was written in C++ using SDL 2 library. In addition, the game also uses Lua as scripting language, fmod as audio engine and opengl for graphics.
Linux Manjaro was the operating system of choice for half of development time.
Software used to develop game: vscodium, gimp, notepad++, aseprite, audacity, reaper, studio one, blender and WPS suite.
Music was written with using sounds from following synths: Korg M1, Korg Wavestation, Roland D-50, Roland JV-1080, Roland Juno-106, Yamaha DX7, Casio CZ, Oberheim OB-X, Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, Ensoniq SQ80 and Waldorf PPG Wave. Basically, the sound comes from the 80s.
A lot of samples from original Amiga SoundTracker packs were used as well as 80s drum machine samples.
Requirements
Operating System
Windows: XP or higher
Linux: Tested on Ubuntu 20.04, Debian 10, Manjaro, Arch
CPU
Any modern CPU with 1.4 Ghz or higher.
Supports both 32 and 64 bit x86 architecture.
Memory
At least 1 GB of free RAM
512mb of free storage space
GPU
Any modern video card supporting OpenGL 3 or higher.
Minimum of 1 GB of VRAM is required.
You need 2 GB of free RAM to run the game via integrated graphics.
Linux
You need to have GLIBC 2.28 or higher. Check it with ldd --version command.