It Lurks Below: a new game from Diablo creator David Brevik

Game developer David Brevik, who once oversaw Blizzard North and Gazillion Entertainment, will release a new game later this year called It Lurks Below, via his Graybeard Games studio. Like Brevik’s previous work on games such as Diablo and Marvel Heroes, It Lurks Below will include action-RPG mechanics and lots of collectible loot, but unlike his other projects, this is a much smaller affair; Brevik made it by himself.

It Lurks Below combines Diablo-style dungeon-plumbing mechanics with sandbox-style worlds that let players dig and construct, à la Terraria and Minecraft. In an interview with Polygon, Brevik said he’s a big fan of those games (and Starbound), but wanted to add something of his own to the genre.

Brevik said It Lurks Below will be a roguelike mix of what he’s done before with games like Diablo and Hellgate: London, and the games he loves playing now. His side-scrolling 2D game will let players explore procedurally generated levels populated with randomized monsters to fight and items to collect. It Lurks Below is “random built on random,” he said.

The game’s combat will see players using wands — “basically guns” — and tools like a pickaxe to fight and dig through the game world. Those weapons will carry their own stats and elemental attributes, as will enemies. “I’m taking inspiration from the Diablo series, where every monster has its own trick,” Brevik said.

Brevik aims to launch It Lurks Below on Steam this year, and will release a closed beta this weekend. That beta will be limited to 200 people. Brevik plans to stream the game this weekend on his studio’s Twitch channel.

He’ll start streaming It Lurks Below on Friday, Feb. 2, at 9 p.m. PT.