[PAX East] TumbleSeed hands-on: Adventuring up hill both ways

At first glance, TumbleSeed seems like an arcade game that would test a players ability to earn a high score. But what TumbleSeed actually is is a fully fleshed out rouge-like that just happens to be controlled like a carnival game.

In TumbleSeed players in-directly control a seed, whose mission is to reach the top of the mountain and save his people. By using both thumb sticks, players move vines (visually a flat board if you look at the screenshots) up and down on both ends to roll the seed back and forth avoiding holes and enemies as they ascend. A little graph is always present underneath your seed to let you know how steep of an angle you are currently at and what sort of movement it is placing on the seed. This form of movement certainly takes some getting used to, but that graph goes a long way in teaching you how to be precise in your movements so when the time comes for things to get crazy you are better prepared for it.

As with most rouge-likes, every time you play will be different. Meaning the path you climb, friends and enemies will all be in different positions from the last time you gave it a go. Adding even more variety are the different seed powers you can discover on your journey. During my demo I experienced things like a checkpoint creator, which would allow you to restart further up the hill if you happen to fall in a hole or destroyed by an enemy. A diamond maker which allows the player to farm currency to use on other powers and things. And a thorn power, which made vines around your seed to hit enemies with. All of these powers are used at little patches of land scattered throughout you climb.

Sometimes a stack of them would be placed together, but sometimes you would have to travel for a bit before seeing one. It’s in the combinations and randomness of what powers are presented to you on each run that will mix up the gameplay. Even with the randomness that is inharent in rouge-likes, the seed powers lend some efficacy to a player who has some experience with the game. Do you stay with the checkpoint power and a healing power so you can make it to that next zone? Or do you risk it and go with aggressive powers because you know there is a creature in the next zone that keeps ending runs for you? These are the type of questions you will have to answer and re-answer as you discover more situations you might possibly encounter. Also present are special chambers that seemed designed to make a player make a snap judgement on what they think might be best for their climb. During my demo I only saw two,the first one allowed me to get a power for free or purchase a power which might be stronger now but maybe less helpful later on. The second gave the option to abandon 2 powers in exchange for another, but there was no guarantee that the power you received would be of help to you at that moment.

It seems that TumbleSeed is shaping up to be an incredibly different game from what most rouge-like fans are used to. Although a release date has not been set yet, the developers are hoping to release it in the next few months for Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Steam on Mac and PC.