Venture Within
Polymorphic Games · 2022 · Action, Singleplayer, Platformer, Roguelite, 2D Platformer
PC
Positive94% · 17
This game is free to play. Get it on Steam →
Screenshots
About Venture Within
Venture Within, a deep-sea roguelite game, takes you inside magically altered, deep-sea hydrothermal vents. As Alice Tharp, daughter of the famous Geomancer Dr. Talia Tharp, you travel to the submarine, Simon, to join your mother’s research expedition. When you arrive, the entire expedition team is missing! To find them, climb your way through vent tower walls, battle magically altered creatures, and avoid natural hazards, while upgrading your skills!
Nearly one hundred years ago, the world discovered magic, and everything changed, including the pursuit of scientific research. As the world focused on arcane studies, science was viewed as unnecessary. However, a small group of mages still saw value in science and formed Aeon Academy. Academy researchers use magic and science to address questions about our world.
Now, the Academy has sent its first expedition to study deep-sea hydrothermal vents, led by Dr. Talia Tharp aboard the submarine Simon. Excited to join her mother’s expedition aboard the Simon, Alice arrives to find a nearly empty, damaged submarine. Only her mother’s magic rock, Silex, and the submarine’s Mechanist, Fritz Boulder, remain on board. Together, the three must find the lost expedition team. By returning to the hydrothermal vents visited by the expedition, you will unravel this mystery – and, hopefully, find your mother too.
Help Alice survive attacks from magically altered creatures based on fauna found in today’s deep-sea hydrothermal ecosystems. Fight off everything from tube worms to animated sulfide minerals.
Collect up to 25 minerals and scientific items dropped by the lost geomancers. Activate mineral samples for temporary boosts to your skills and carry scientific items in your field bag to passively increase your skills. Harvest Pyrite to fuel the Simon’s 3D printer and print permanent upgrades.
Research the items you find and creatures you defeat to gain “research points”. Use these points to unlock up to 16 unique 3D Blueprints for the GeoTech, the Simon’s 3D Printer.
Enjoy a window into the deep-sea marine geology of hydrothermal vents. In game geologic events, scientific items, minerals and rocks, vent types, and the descriptions of hydrothermal circulation are all based on scientific data and practices. What would you expect from a game funded by the United States National Science Foundation? In fact, game development was supported by National Science Foundation grant #OCE-1753354.
Nearly one hundred years ago, the world discovered magic, and everything changed, including the pursuit of scientific research. As the world focused on arcane studies, science was viewed as unnecessary. However, a small group of mages still saw value in science and formed Aeon Academy. Academy researchers use magic and science to address questions about our world.
Now, the Academy has sent its first expedition to study deep-sea hydrothermal vents, led by Dr. Talia Tharp aboard the submarine Simon. Excited to join her mother’s expedition aboard the Simon, Alice arrives to find a nearly empty, damaged submarine. Only her mother’s magic rock, Silex, and the submarine’s Mechanist, Fritz Boulder, remain on board. Together, the three must find the lost expedition team. By returning to the hydrothermal vents visited by the expedition, you will unravel this mystery – and, hopefully, find your mother too.
SURVIVE
Help Alice survive attacks from magically altered creatures based on fauna found in today’s deep-sea hydrothermal ecosystems. Fight off everything from tube worms to animated sulfide minerals.
COLLECT AND HARVEST
Collect up to 25 minerals and scientific items dropped by the lost geomancers. Activate mineral samples for temporary boosts to your skills and carry scientific items in your field bag to passively increase your skills. Harvest Pyrite to fuel the Simon’s 3D printer and print permanent upgrades.
RESEARCH AND UPGRADE
Research the items you find and creatures you defeat to gain “research points”. Use these points to unlock up to 16 unique 3D Blueprints for the GeoTech, the Simon’s 3D Printer.
LEARN SCIENCE
Enjoy a window into the deep-sea marine geology of hydrothermal vents. In game geologic events, scientific items, minerals and rocks, vent types, and the descriptions of hydrothermal circulation are all based on scientific data and practices. What would you expect from a game funded by the United States National Science Foundation? In fact, game development was supported by National Science Foundation grant #OCE-1753354.
What Steam players say
Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.
⠀7 found this helpful
"Venture Within" is a student project from the University of Idaho, and this is exactly why the University of Idaho is not anywhere on the list of schools you want to go to to learn game development. What did they teach the students in this course??? "Here's Grand Theft Auto V. It's one of the most popular video games ever made. You must never make games anywhere like this. We will teach you how to make pixelcrap 2D retro platformers with janky controls instead." This features really godawful, lazy pixelcrap "art" instead of real graphics. It's hard to say if this was because the developer didn't have the skill to do the job of creating 3D visuals, or couldn't afford to hire someone who does, but it also doesn't matter. What matters is that this looks bad because of that decision, and that's a major deterrent to gamers. Games like Terraria and Stardew Valley succeeded [i]despite[/i] the bad graphics, not because of them. You're forced to sign a highly questionable yet legally unenforceable End User License Agreement... for such a relatively low effort, low quality product, this comes across more as a delusion of grandeur than anything else. This agreement includes questi…2 found this helpful
2 found this helpful
Neat platformer. Quite good for a free game.2 found this helpful
Cool game. Challenging yet fun!1 found this helpful
[h1]Before I played Venture Within, I had a small pp, no friends, no gf, depression, and no life. These things havent changed, but the game is pretty good[/h1]
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