We've had our eye on Team Lazerbeam's Shroom and Gloom for quite some time, and if you haven't given it a try yet, now's the perfect opportunity: the roguelike deckbuilder is officially in Early Access. Its visual style is incredibly distinctive and feels straight out of some '90s animated series, with bold, vibrant colors and delightfully grotesque creature design.

The world itself is made up of thousands of hand-drawn illustrations and animations, all layered to create a convincing 3D effect as you make your way through the caves. The comparison above shows how a level looks in the game engine versus how it appears during actual gameplay, and of course, this is certainly not the easiest way to make a game, but according to the developers, the process is fun, and the end result is very rewarding.

When it comes to optimization, one of the simpler tricks the developers used was to load each level only after the player has unlocked its entrance. This means that, at most, only two levels' worth of layers are stacked on top of each other.

Team Lazerbeam also doesn't have to place every layer by hand. They've created specialized tools to help populate the tunnels with assets, though they still need to tweak a fair amount to get everything looking just right. Naturally, most of the elements are reused throughout the game.

What happens if you look to the side? The camera will move in the direction you look, but Team Lazerbeam has set the "range of motion" to prevent players from breaking the illusion.

All the illustrations are handcrafted, with Team Lazerbeam making it clear that they don't use AI in their creative process. The developers also regularly shares behind-the-scenes looks at their work online, you can check out the process of illustrating the Gunk Worm:

Shroom and Gloom keeps its story deliberately vague: you're trapped in a network of underground tunnels filled with hostile mushrooms. Gameplay focuses on fighting your way out, building powerful decks, and turning your cards into increasingly monstrous creations. There are two separate decks: a combat deck for fighting enemies and an exploration deck for navigating dungeons, modifying cards, and unlocking new weapons and abilities.

Get Shroom and Gloom on Steam and subscribe to our Newsletter, join our 80 Level Talent platform, Discord, and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Telegram, and Instagram, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.

Are you a fan of what we do here at 80 Level? Then make sure to set us as a Preferred Source on Google to see more of our content in your feed.