HollowRun
The Rot does not kill at once. It corrodes.
Cinderheim fell too long ago for anyone to remember. What is left drains the life out of everything that breathes, and your health bar falls on its own, without pause, with no natural regeneration. The only thing that fills it back up is levelling up.
Killing is how you breathe.
The Hollow runs east alone. You do not steer his steps. You decide what he is: six active skills and two layers of progression stacked on top of each other.
What you do
- Six active skills on Q W E R T Y, or on click. Fire, lightning and ice, each with its own mana cost and cooldown.
- 45 nodes in the run tree, split across Strength, Speed and Magic. The points never cover everything, and taking one path closes another.
- 50 nodes in the permanent constellation: Power, Vitality, Agility, Wisdom and Fortune. What you buy here is yours for good.
- Prestige whenever you want. It wipes your level, your points and your tree. In exchange, the fragments stay with you forever.
The world
Five biomes take turns every crossing: Shadowed Forest, Deep Caverns, Castle Ruins, Corrupted Swamp and Ancestral Graveyard. Eleven creatures, three bosses. The further east you get, the stronger the Rot, the drain grows with distance and does not ask permission.
Dying is the loop, not the punishment
You will fall. You get up in the same place with your level, your points and your tree intact, and you go deeper next time. The death screen does not scold you. It tells you one more line about whose armor you are wearing.
Details
- Runs in the browser. No install, no account.
- English, Português, Español.
- Saves by itself. Close the tab and come back.
- Keyboard and mouse.
- Made by one person.
Development log
- Update 1.1: your biome is saved, and the ending finally rests1 day ago
- The wall at biome 132 days ago
Comments
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While the game does save level and prestige data, biome progress is lost on exit. A bit of a hassle, given the minimum 13 seconds or so per biome - I've gotten two nebulously final end game notifications, both vaguely suggesting that there's more, so I'd like to do some deep dives. With the biome resets, that means ((13x100)/60) seconds (over 21 minutes) of doing nothing in order to reach biome 100, the approximate point where a late game Hollow isn't just killing everything before it even shows up on screen. Coupled to how quickly XP rewards and requirements scale, those resets where a high level character goes back to biome one feel like empty time - no threats, no rewards, just waiting.
The victory screen(s) read like they're aiming for mysterious, but land closer to 'self-contradictory'. The Hollow Run is over, but there's more to the game, and the Hollow will continue to Run? I don't know if I'm done, or if there's an actual ending, and the writeups aren't clarifying anything.
Gripes aside, good use of two experience layers/ level trees, well balanced options. Actual decision making for the player is somewhat minimal, but is there, requiring some thought over which option combinations synchronize best. No noticed bugs, aside from the biome loss detailed above. Good job on this one!
Thank you so much for the detailed feedback! It is very important to understand what works and what doesn't so I can apply these lessons to future updates and new games.
I completely understand your point about the biome resets and the 'empty time' waiting in the late game, that is a very valid critique on pacing and balance. Regarding the victory screens, the goal was to be mysterious, but I can see how it came across as confusing. There are actually two distinct endings to discover!
I'm really glad you enjoyed the dual skill trees and the overall balance. A lot of hours went into this solo project, and your comment makes it all worth it. Thanks for playing!
Hey, following up on this! Your comment about pushing toward biome 100 stuck with me, so I wrote a devlog about how the scaling works behind the scenes and why the game almost had a hard wall at biome 13: https://zer0fast.itch.io/hollowrun/devlog/1668442/the-wall-at-biome-13
Since you mentioned wanting to do some deep dives: the second ending sits at biome 106. If you get there, I'd genuinely love to hear how it went.
Oh! I beat it then. Because everything's automated and I had cranked through the whole skill tree, I wasn't actively watching the screen anymore, so by the time I saw the writeup (which, again, is a bit obscure as to whether the game is done) I had bled out (from the scaling automatic environmental damage I guess?) and recycled.
Yes, you beat it, both endings actually! The first one triggers when you buy the last node of the constellation (that's the credits screen), and the second one is at biome 106.
The death wasn't supposed to happen, though. When you reach the second ending, the Hollow is meant to stop running and the Rot's drain is meant to stop too, so he can finally rest there. Dying on the ending screen and getting recycled was definitely not how that moment was supposed to play out, sorry it ended that way for you! Your guess about the drain is right otherwise: it grows with distance, so by biome 106 it hits hard.
Fair point on the endings being too obscure about whether the game is over. That's a good lesson for my next project. Thanks for sticking with it all the way, you might be the first player to see everything HollowRun has!
I think just the mildest tweak to the constellation ending, specifically the second line of the first paragraph, and having the Hollow actually stop when they reach the rot's terminus would do it.
Your suggestions make total sense, and I actually had the fixes ready: the clearer constellation ending, and the Hollow stopping at the Rot's source. Unfortunately, I found out that because of how itch hosts browser games, uploading a new build would wipe everyone's saves, including yours. I'd rather not do that to anyone who's put hours into the constellation, so I'm holding off on the update for now.
So, for the record, here's what the endings were meant to say: completing the constellation is the first ending, but not the last. The second one is at the source of the Rot, at biome 106, where the Hollow is supposed to stop and finally rest. You reached both, which makes you the first player I know of to see everything HollowRun has.
Lesson learned for my next game: set up saves that survive updates from day one. Thanks again for playing all the way through and for all the thoughtful feedback!
Update: I found a way around the save problem! The new build now picks up your old save automatically, so nothing gets lost. Your suggestions are in: the Hollow now stops at the Rot's source, and the constellation ending is clearer. Full details here: https://zer0fast.itch.io/hollowrun/devlog/1668881/update-11-your-biome-is-saved-...
Thanks again, this update exists because of your feedback.