Overgrowth

The sequel to Wolfire Games' Lugaru and built on their proprietary Phoenix Engine, Overgrowth is a Beat'Em Up with strong platforming and Parkour elements. Like its predecessor it follows the adventures of Turner, the wandering warrior, but it will feature multiplayer, vastly improved graphics and physics, a wider range of weapons and combat moves, and new races (the original's rabbits and wolves plus cats, dogs, and rats ).

The game is in alpha right now, with a new build (and a new demonstration video) released each week.


 * After the End: Concept art for Overgrowth (and the name) may hint at this. It shows lots of out-of-place ancient ruins overrun by nature, all clearly remnants of heavily decayed modern architecture. Wolfire Games have decided to leave this possible backstory of the Lugaruverse open to interpretation by players.
 * Almost-Lethal Weapons: Averted, at least for bladed weapons.
 * Badass: Turner. In Lugaru he was the only rabbit able to take on wolves and win. It stands to reason things will escalate from here, seeing the addition of other animals, techniques and weapons.
 * World of Badass: Everything.
 * The Blacksmith: Dogs are known for their weaponsmithing skills.
 * Bloodier and Gorier: Mostly a result of improved technology rather than a new stylistic direction. Some videos even focus on the technology they're using to bring the gore to life.
 * Another video also shows the extent to which the improved tech is used to make wounds look realistic; blood only appears where you landed a hit and scales appropriately with the size of the wound (so a small puncture wound from a spear doesn't bleed as much as a slash from a sword, etc.)
 * Civilized Animal: For a given definition of "civilized." All mammals in the land of Lugaru are somewhat anthropomorphic bipeds with language skills, and most are clothed, but they're still part of an ecology that involves eating each other.
 * Combo Breaker: Done by blocking while recovering from being hit.
 * Counter Attack: The game's combat revolves around tricking opponents into committing to an attack or block, and then punishing mistakes.
 * Development Gag: The fearsome Whale Man was used as a reason why Wolfire wasn't going to put water in the game. He's currently in the alpha (albeit as an inanimate statue) and might make it into the full game in some form.
 * Everythings Better With Bunnies
 * Everything's Worse with Wolves
 * Funny Bruce Lee Noises: Well, that's what it sounds like if the rabbits fight with animal sounds.
 * Furries Are Easier to Draw: Word of God states that this is half the reason they designed the game around animals instead of humans. It also helps avoid the Uncanny Valley.
 * Game Mod: The level editor is part of the package. Naturally, mods, custom levels and custom characters have sprung up.
 * Goomba Springboard: The Leg Cannon pretty much allows you to do exactly that. If you attack while in the air, you jump up from the enemy's chest, flinging him and you quite far.
 * Hit Points: Averted. As the combat is all physics-based, your ability to survive a hit depends on whether it strikes something vital (like your spine) hard enough to kill you.
 * In a Single Bound: It makes more sense for you to do this when you're an anthropomorphic animal.
 * In the Hood: The raider enemy.
 * Low Fantasy
 * Proud Warrior Race Guy: Dogs, wolves, and (to an extent) rabbits. Possibly cats, too, although they seem to put more emphasis on the "proud" than on the "warrior."
 * Punny Name: The character who appears in Wolfire's demo videos is named "Robbert." In earlier videos the character was a primitive model made of spheres and cylinders named "Rabbot."
 * Ragdoll Physics: Overgrowth takes ragdoll physics to the next level, featuring "active ragdolls" (so characters can stumble when hit, act as though they're trying to protect themselves while they're falling, and thrash around in pain as they die).
 * Running Gag: Turner dies messily at the end of nearly every alpha video released since playable characters were added.
 * Scenery Porn
 * Sequel Escalation
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential: As you'd expect. For example, there's a chokehold move; you can sneak up on an enemy, choke them, then kick them into a wall. And then there's the fun of kicking enemies off cliffs and watching them plummet to their doom...
 * Wreaking Havok: The game has some of the most detailed physics modeling ever seen -- a thrown weapon will spin around its center of mass and, if it hits a surface with its cutting edge, will penetrate into that surface with a depth corresponding to the material's density and the speed at which the weapon was traveling -- although it all adds to the world's verisimilitude and none of it seems gratuitous.