Don’t Starve developer Klei Entertainment’s avoid-the-floor parkour platformer Hot Lava will be springing across the upholstery and out onto Steam next Thursday, 19th September.
Hot Lava, as you’ve no doubt already guessed, takes inspiration from the classic children’s game in which players must scramble across a makeshift obstacle course consisting of home furnishing/priceless nicknacks/pets in order to reach a designated end-point, all while avoiding stepping on the ground. Because it is lava and therefore death.
Of course, in Klei’s video game reimagining, the floor actually is lava (or toxic waste or bottomless pits), and touching it will most definitely lead to death.
It plays up the inherent nostalgia angle too, with stages set across familiar childhood environments like chintzy living rooms and sprawling schools – and competitors even play as plastic toy versions of the Global Action Team, a fictional 80s-style cartoon.
Navigating Hot Lava’s devious labyrinthines of smouldering death requires players to run, jump, climb, swing, and slide from one solid surface to the next, all in first-person, with the only real rule being to avoid the lethal floor.
There’s drop-in-and-out multiplayer support for up to eight players, and friends leaderboards encouraging competitive sorts to seek out shortcuts and finesse their parkour skills in order to find the quickest route to the end. There’s even Steam Workshop support, enabling those of a more creative disposition to conjure up their own challenging obstacle courses.
Klei previously announced that Hot Lava will also be heading to iOS, Apple TV, and Mac, via Apple Arcade. Based on its latest launch date announcement, however, it’s not entirely clear if these versions are also due on 19th September.
