Klei, the developer best known for the Don’t Starve franchise and Invisible Inc., has a new game in the works, and it’s a childhood favorite. Hot Lava has you jumping from platform to precarious platform, whether it’s at home or in a school, with only one rule: Don’t touch the floor, because it’s made of lava.
No, don’t fret — you haven’t taken Krieger Kleanse and neither have the main characters in the upcoming game, but they do have that Borderlands-esque nuttiness to them as they swing, run, and jump through levels that all have floors which are far too hot to touch.
From the first trailer for the game, it looks to have quite a Mirror’s Edge feel to it, though of course with a more juvenile twist. Players seem to be encouraged to explore and find new routes through levels, whether it’s via wall jumping, shimmying along ledges, or outright sprinting as fast as you can. Speedruns will absolutely be a component of these games, and the frictionless ledges that let you “surf” to super-high speeds will no doubt come in handy there.
Out of character with previous Klei releases however, this is not a 2D or isometric title, but a fully realized 3D game. In fact, if the pace wasn’t so high, we’d have assumed it was aiming for a virtual reality release, but the speed with which the players slide off of those platforms has us clutching our stomachs already, so that seems unlikely.
Injection drivers might be able to make it work one day, but we’ll leave that for those with iron guts.
Regardless, there’s no way to play Hot Lava just yet, but there are open applications for beta invites, so if you’d like to help test the game before its official release, you can sign up on the main site here. There’s no guarantee you’ll get in, but then there’s no guarantee you’ll survive a lava-filled room either.
Sometimes you just have to take a chance.