Double Fine’s Adventure Game ‘The Cave’, Due Out Next Year

Though development studio Double Fine caught a good deal of press for its Kickstarter Adventure game recently, aptly titled Double Fine Adventure, that doesn’t mean the studio hasn’t been working on other projects – quite the opposite actually.

Announced today was The Cave, a side-scrolling, multi-character focused adventure game from Ron Gilbert and Double Fine, published by SEGA. Coming to Xbox Live arcade, PlayStation Network, and the PC in 2013, The Cave focuses on a varied group of cave-diving comrades – including the likes of none other than a scientist, a time traveler, and a monk, all set on finding a fortune of their own within the dark depths of the mysterious cave.

“Your first clue that The Cave is a place like no other will come just after you assemble your team of three unlikely adventurers—each with their own unique personalities and skills—and stumble across a subterranean amusement park and a medieval castle, not to mention a fully armed and ready-to-launch nuclear-tipped ICBM,” mentions the press release.

Also, the cave can speak apparently:

“There are those who say I’m not rooting for everyone who ventures down here but that’s not true. Not true at all. But I’m also not above a good chuckle when someone falls in lava.”

The Cave then began to chuckle.

You start the game by picking a trio of team members (some of which listed above) and guiding them into the underground – solving puzzles and alternating team members (each with their own unique abilities) to accomplish a multitude of tasks.

Take for example, The Knight, who can activate a “guardian angel” ability that shields him from flames and fall damage. The hillbilly character, on the other hand, can hold his breath underwater indefinitely.

I’m from Arkansas, and I certainly can’t do that. Get it? Self-deprecating humor!

The game can be finished with any trio of selected characters, but as the game has multiple branching endings, some conclusions are locked to specific characters.

The Cave certainly sounds adventurous to me, wouldn’t mind getting a closer peek. What do you guys think?