Eniko announced that Lore Finder, a side-scrolling metroidvania has currently received a free demo that you can check out over on the game’s Kickstarter page.

After just spending a few days on Kickstarter and garnering 82% of its funding, the developer figured they could reach even more people if gamers had a chance to play the game for themselves and spread the good word about Lore Finder.

The theme of the game is based around paranormal investigator, K.C. Morgan. An investigator who takes on cases around the east coast region, but one case in particular takes K.C. to New England, looking for K.C.’s missing father at a seemingly abandoned mansion. As it goes with most of these stories, the mansion is not abandoned, and it’s a complex and horrifying breeding ground for warp entities, extradimensional travelers, and Eldritch abominations.

You can check out the pitch video below to get an idea of what Lore Finder is like.

As you can see, the gameplay in Lore Finder mixes the traditional side-scrolling platforming with projectile-based combat, item scavenging, and boss fights. It certainly reminds me a lot of the Castlevania games on the SNES combined with classic side-scrolling shooters like Lethal Weapon.

The Metroid part comes into play as K.C., progresses through the mansion; it becomes possible to unlock additional warp powers to help aid in the battle against the ancient ones.

Visually the game has a classic 16-bit aesthetic going for it, with it interesting uses of the palette to highlight the distortion of the mansion.

The demo is currently available right now for Windows on PC or playable through the browser from itch.io. If the game is fully funded there are plans for Eniko to partner up with Ratalaika Games and have it published on the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PS Vita, and the PlayStation 4.

Lore Finder’s development isn’t scheduled to find itself on the gold side of completion until December of 2019 next year. So it’s an entire year out from release. If you want to learn more about the game or check out the demo, you can do so by visiting the Kickstarter page.