Rusted Mossis a well-received Metroidvania with a gorgeous pixel art style, fluid physics-based movement, and superb speedrunning potential. Like manyindie games,Rusted Mosshas experimented with some unique design decisions that help it stand out among the pack, particularly thanks to its open-ended level design and how it relates to the game’s primary means of traversal.
Game Rant recently interviewedRusted Mossdevelopers Faxdoc, Hayppysquared, and Sunnydaze to talk about various ideas that went into the game, and one of the most interesting points they brought up was howRusted Mossis built around the concept of “creativity gates” to drive its exploration. This is opposed to relying on more rigid upgrade systems for opening up new portions of the map, as most Metroidvania games tend to do.
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Rusted Moss Uses Creativity Gates Rather Than Ability Gates
One of the defining characteristics ofMetroidvanias likeHollow Knightis how their progression systems are directly tied to exploration. Players might encounter a ledge that’s just slightly too high to reach, indicating that they’ll have to return later after they’ve unlocked a double jump ability. This can result in a lot of frustrating backtracking and makes the seemingly open world more linear as the map calls for a sequence of upgrades to reach later areas. According to Happysquared,
You could wait to get an upgrade that helps you out with it more, but honestly, the level design ofRusted Mossis actually really open, maybe more open than what newer players realize until they replay the game again and realize with the knowledge that they gathered from their playthrough that they can actually get to certain areas way faster than others.
There’s this one platforming challenge in the game where we’ve seen four different players come up with four different ways to get across. You don’t often see that in other games where there’s a set solution to some things. We just want to really emphasize that things are more like skill gates and creativity gates, rather than ability-gated, like in other Metroidvanias.
The developers ofRusted Mossworked hard to subvert this genre convention and have made most of the game accessible with Fern’s basic grappling hook ability so long as players use it skillfully and creatively. This has inspired a strong community oftalented speedrunnerswho masterfully use the game’s fluid physics-based movement to cruise through the game at an incredible pace.
The Player Becomes Stronger In Rusted Moss Rather Than the Character
One of the reasons people are drawn to challenginggames likeDark Soulsis that the game forces the player to master it to progress. Within minutes of starting the game, the player has all the tools they need to conquer every challenge ahead. This player-based rather than character-based progression is extremely satisfying, and theRusted Mossteam leaned into that philosophy for their own game. Happysquared also added,
There’s that feeling you get when you play a game and you’re actually getting better. You feel like you as the player are getting better, rather than the player character that is getting better. You really get that feeling insideRusted Moss. A lot of people when they start off with a grappling hook and say, “Oh, I really suck at it.”
But by the end of the game, you realize that the earlier challenges you’re doing have suddenly become trivially easy as you keep expanding your own player skills, which isn’t something that you see very often because, in other Metroidvanias, you carry over skills from other games you’ve played. Most people have done a double jump, they’ve experienced that before. They’ve experienced a dash. This is something new that you have to train your muscle memory on.
There’s also a sense of player growth even for veterans ofthe Metroidvania genresinceRusted Moss' mechanics involve a whole new skill set that isn’t easily translated from other games. Someone who has mastered games likeCastlevaniaorMetroidwill still be starting from scratch when it comes to the grapple’s usage. The appeal of many games is the feeling of growth as a player masters its systems, andRusted Mosspresents an excellent opportunity for players of all skill levels to experience this.
Rusted Mossis available on PC.
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