Hibernaculum Is a Disgusting Old-School Sci-Fi Dungeon Crawler on Kickstarter

Hibernaculum is a PC Kickstarter project from Primordia developer Wormwood Studios that will take players back to old-school dungeon crawler design with H.R. Giger-inspired visuals. This is definitely one of those “you didn’t know you wanted this” projects, and its Kickstarter trailer does even more to sell its nostalgia-packed premise. Those who have played Wormwood’s previous projects won’t be surprised by what Hibernaculum has to show. Its new tentacle-y trailer sees players moving through green-and-gray sci-fi environments as they come across creatures that feel both grounded and alien.

The video has maggots rummage through corpses while cyborgs patrol lonely hallways, and the soundtrack is already teasing some delightfully unsettling earworms. Inspired by Fallout, Resident Evil 2, Eye of the Beholder, and Baldur’s Gate, you can see what Wormwood has to offer yourself in the Hibernaculum Kickstarter trailer below.

The game aims to balance retro and modern RPG design. Up front, Wormwood’s latest showcases old-school combat and archaic movement only seen in some of the earliest video games. Players are meant to get lost in its labyrinthine hallways, but they won’t be frustrated thanks to features such as a mini-map, fast travel, and waypoints. In-between the dungeon-crawling, players will be kept on their toes with events, sidequests, and audio logs that will help flesh out its story.

Hibernaculum just began its Kickstarter journey and is already off to a strong start. With 29 days left to go, the project has at the time of writing raised more than $18,000 of its $47,107 goal. As for why Wormwood decided to use Kickstarter to fund its project, the studio explains that it is hoping to take its time and give Hibernaculum the thorough development cycle it deserves. With that in mind, the small team isn’t expecting to launch its project until Q3 2025.

They explained the following:

Hibernaculum will be made slowly but surely over the course of several years if needs be, however we think some funding will go a long way to bringing that timeframe down to one we can all look forward to a lot sooner; especially given our modular/freestyle team structure. It will also help pay for development of the Hibernaculum game engine (which is currently in a pre-alpha test phase) as well as administration and publishing costs, supplementary animators, level designers, musicians, audio engineering, studio equipment & fulfilling all rewards.

So, we’ve got years of waiting to do, but that gives Wormwood plenty of time to continue creating the old-school dungeon crawler fans need. Hibernaculum is in development for PC and Mac for now, though Wormwood says it has “immediate plans for porting to Steam Deck, iOS, and Nintendo Switch.”