A screenshot of Cavemen Craig caught my eye while checking out the Game Maker website. It won second place in a community Ancient Civilisation competition (which is cool idea in itself).
Caveman Craig is a side-scrolling strategy game with amusing animation and writing. It’s a bit of a niche genre (Steam Brigade leaps to mind) but I love the idea.
The game has a simple but clever concept. You lead a cave of cavemen. Each caveman has a specific role: Hunter (throw rocks at things and hide), Gatherer (gather berries and drag carcasses home) or Preparer (turn berries and carcasses into food). Once you gather enough food for a new caveman, the clueless Neanderthal will follow you around. As you do actions they learn them too. As soon as a caveman finishes learning their role (or sooner, if you choose), they run off by themselves and carry out their work.
Being historically accurate, your cavemen soon find themselves being hunted by, or just in the path of, increasingly large dinosaurs. No prize for guessing which one poses the greatest challenge. Rival cavemen can show up as well, leading to large stone-throwing fights.
As your population grows you receive useful additions to your cave, such as a roasting spit to prepare meat faster, and a target for training hunters, which is handy later on when it can be quite difficult to reach a dinosaur first to throw rocks at it before your other hunters.
There’s no real story, the game just gets harder as dinosaurs attack more frequently. It does get repetitive after a few plays, but it’s good fun seeing new events. There is a large unlock when your cave grows enough that I haven’t achieved yet–my best cave was wiped out by raptors and a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
You can download Caveman Craig or play it online at its Game Maker page or check out the developer’s blog. They’ve accounced a special edition with added features coming soon.
