The Cave Diver Key Art
Image: Ovsko

I have never been caving. I will never go caving. I am terrified by the very concept of crawling into a deep, dark, deadly hole that you cannot extract yourself from, and I'm not even especially claustrophobic! It is because of that deep, instinctive fear (plus an excellent but now-unavailable demo) that I am simultaneously repulsed and morbidly curious about The Cave Diver, a fumblecore caving horror adventure from new indie developer Ovsko.

The inspirations for The Cave Diver (which I keep mistyping as Dave Civer, somehow) are pretty clear. This is an intentionally floppy 'fumblecore' game. As much QWOP or Baby Steps as anything, but obviously less about the slapstick misadventure of it all, and more the horrifying journey ahead. You're only able to move your arms, dragging your body ahead one pull at a time, but this, of course, limits your movement. Death is a key part of the game, with each death sending you back to the start as a new character, able to find markers and hints left behind by your past selves.

All of this is wrapped up in a stark, heavily shadowed aesthetic. Gloomy backdrops, cave walls in solid shadowed black, and your character standing out from it all in solid white. The markers you leave behind, though? Also black, just new parts of the unforgiving environment. I'd not expect The Cave Diver to be an especially long game, but given the death mechanics here, I'd hazard a guess that it'll take a few sessions to get through, especially if you need to take breaks for some fresh air between delves.

This isn't the first game to explore the potential horrors of claustrophobic caving, or that I've enjoyed them. One of my favorite indie games of 2024, Lorn's Lure, had a whole level dedicated to crawling your way into tiny spaces with no way back, but this is probably the game most committed to making the concept as skin-crawling as possible. If I can drum up the courage, I hope to give this a try over the weekend. But I might chicken out.

If you're feeling a little braver, The Cave Diver is out now for £9.09/$10, with a 10% launch discount running until August 22nd. There's also some extra savings to be found if you own thematically linked chillers Subsumed or Endoparasitic.