Many people have a fear of spiders, what about about spiders with laser swords? I’m not sure if that would make them scarier or more endearing, but in Spiderheck it makes them primed for some chaotic fighting. This past weekend at PAX East, publisher tinyBuild showcased the 2D multiplayer game by developer Neverjam. Playing the the game, it had a tough learning curve, but once I got the hand (and legs) of it, I had an absolute blast.
In Spiderheck, up to four players can join in for local multiplayer. Each one plays as a neon-colored spider with the ability to shoot webs, swing from them, and use weapons. More on that last bit in a moment. As for the web-mechanics, they take some getting used to for the game. However, in order to start a match, players have to swing to the top of the screen to denote that they’re ready to battle. It’s a nice touch, essentially blending a tiny tutorial into the start screen.
Once everyone is ready, which took a little bit of time in my session but could take just a couple of seconds for veterans, the match begins. In my time with Spiderheck, the first player to reach ten points would win, being the last spider standing at the end of each round. At first, I couldn’t get a single point, as any draws in which the last two spiders die at the same time results in a point for neither. Since each round takes place above lava, sometimes nobody wins.
At first, the rounds offer basic laser guns and bombs, but a few rounds in more complex weapons appeared, such as lightsaber-like laser swords, high-powered railguns, and detonatable mines. At this point in the game, I had the web swinging mechanics down pretty well, and I smiled goofily as I engaged in web-slinging laser sword duels above the lava as if somebody decided to recreate Revenge of the Sith with arachnids.
Getting the hang of it, pun intended, I eventually clinched the ten-point win and the round ended. I was still a bit clumsy, but I like to think I had found some level of gracefulness in swinging from rock to rock and at least avoiding the lava that had claimed me in the first few matches. The final game will also have a single-player mode as well as a leveling system.
Speaking with Tom Brien, the co-founder of tinyBuild, he told me a bit about the game and its history with the publisher. Tom said that he goes through hundreds of game pitches a year, but when he got to Spiderheck he immediately said, “Ah this is fun, it’s a really small game, let’s do it.”
When Spiderheck came to tinyBuild’s attention it really was a small game, just two stages Tom told me, but since then the game has added many more. It initially had just a few weapons, but once the developer explained how easy it was to add them, they went for it and added a few more as well.
Currently, the PAX Demo, which itself feels like a whole game, is available for download on Steam. But the full game will swing onto PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC with the aforementioned additions this summer.
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Neverjam is located in Ukraine. This is not the case.
