Frayscape

Frayscape is a shelved game idea by Kjolt. It was a top-down game inspired by The Legend of Zelda, the Pit of 100 Trials in Super Paper Mario and Rovgend's Labyrinth, the game that would eventually become modded to become Rodney's Tunnel. It had a limited-palette pixel art style resembling a simplistic SNES game.

Although it is unlikely for Frayscape to become realized as an actual game, many of its ideas carry over into other projects, mainly characters and monsters designed for it finding their way into Rodney's Tunnel and Tunnels from Nowhere.

Gameplay

The player controls a protagonist who can hold two primary types of weapons: blades and guns. Blades are melee weapons that can be used indefinitely, and guns are projectile-shooters that consume ammo. They must descend several compact, square rooms full of enemies and objects. A single enemy on each floor holds a key that allows them to progress. Every eight floors would be a boss floor, for a total of about eighty floors and ten bosses.

The player's inventory could carry up to 4 blades and guns each, as well as 8 slots for special potion items. These could be found in pots, which also contain health/ammo pickups, and a temporary kind of item known as critters. A critter would hover above the player's head, applying a temporary buff like health regeneration, direct contact damage to enemies or infinite ammo.

As the player kills enemies, they would earn Fraycoins, a currency that can be spent on upgrades or saved after a run ends. The total is halved if the player dies, but the Fraycoins they keep by the end get added to a bank. A shop menu would let you purchase new areas, blades and guns to be added to the game. This would allow them to reach the final and true final bosses. Additionally, special keys could be purchased that add challenge modifiers when applied.