Fact sheet
Developer:
m1ndg4mes
Based in Stockholm, Sweden
Release date:
22nd April 2022
Platforms:
Steam
Website:
crux-game.com
Regular Price:
Steam: USD 9,99
iOS/Android: USD 3.99
Description
Crux: The Great Outdoors is a mobile rock climbing game that translates the sport to the screen with a unique time-based puzzle mechanic.
As the sequel to the surprise success of Crux (AppStore Game of the Day), it takes the action out of the gym and into twelve serene and beautiful landscapes, from Caribbean coastline to rugged Highlands and red canyon walls.
To get to the top you move your climber’s hands or feet to a new hold - but each hold will only let her hands hang on for so long. The game comes with over 70 levels, a practice mode, fully customizable characters and an achievement system for fishing a climb in the least amount of moves. Crux: The Great Outdoors is available as a paid game on Steam, iOS and Android.
History
Since the launch of Crux in September 2020 it has been featured prominently on the App Store (Game of the Day in over 160 countries), received favourable reviews in games and climbing media (Kotaku, PocketGamer, Android Police, Climbing Magazine, Outdoor Magazine) and even a few award nominations (PocketGamer Most Innovative Game, Best Sport Game).
Buoyed by the positive feedback, creator Ben Dressler started revisiting what had been out of scope for the first title: Capturing the serene experience of climbing boulders in nature.
Videos
Release Trailer
Images
Logo and Icon
Articles & Praise for Crux: The Great Outdoors
Articles, reviews, features
- AppStore 'New Games We Love' in over 130 countries
- PocketGamer feature, gameplay video
- TouchArcade Game of the Week
- DroidGamers Best New Games
Praise
Jared Nelson, TouchArcade:
Crux: The Great Outdoors is launching with [...] 9 absolutely stunning outdoor environments. [...] these new outdoor environments, and not to mention the excellent audio accompanying them, make a huge difference. As the kids might say today: It’s a whole vibe.
Crux is a game well worth your time and [...] the whole thing is incredibly enjoyable both from a thematic aspect and as a really solid puzzle game.
James Gilmour, PocketGamer:
This is Crux: The Great Outdoors, the sequel to a game I really liked. [...] It maintains a lot of the addictive fun/stress that the first game offered. [...] Oh the joy of victory. It’s still a delight. [...] I remember recommending [the prequel] and I'll do the same with this.
Harry Slater, DroidGamers:
A sequel to possibly the finest climbing puzzler ever created. Clamber over handholds and footholds to reach the top of a series of routes in the great outdoors. It takes a while to get used to the controls, but when it clicks this is a thing of beauty.
Articles, Praise & Data for Crux: A Climbing Game (2020)
Articles, reviews, features
- AppStore 'Game of the Day' in over 160 countries
- PocketGamer award nomination, review, 2.0 announcement, Games of the Week
- Kotaku feature article
- Climbing Magazine article
- Gripped Magazine article
- Outside Magazine article (french, paywall)
- AndroidPolice Games of the Week
- Seven Days To Play podcast review (available on Spotify)
Praise
James Gilmour, PocketGamer:
Take QWOP and force the flaily-limbed character to go rock climbing, and you've got something akin to Crux: A Climbing Game. Actually, it's a lot more graceful than that. But it's still demanding, occasionally chaotic, and looks painful when it goes wrong. I recommend it - I’m having a good time even though I’m getting destroyed!
Bennett Slavsky, Climbing Magazine:
Playing Crux is pleasantly intriguing, especially as the levels increase in difficulty. Just like real climbing, as the routes get harder the sequence becomes more precise, and dialing in beta as your avatar climber fights the pump mimics the real-life problem solving process. The game is clearly well-made by climbers and for climbers.
Brandon Pullan, Gripped Magazine:
"A great game to keep working on boulder problems while gyms are closed" - "I solved problems on Crux for an hour and I’m hooked. It’s probably the best climbing game that you’ll play this season" - "The game is simple, stylish, and it incorporates core climbing concepts, like movement, rhythm and flow. The gameplay nails the problem-solving side of bouldering from start to finish."
Riley MacLeod, Kotaku:
New mobile game Crux almost scratches my climbing itch: the climbing gym simulator gives me the problem-solving fun of rock climbing, but without the sore arms and shirtless bros of the gym.
Crux gives me some of the mental joys of climbing, if not the physical and social joy of doing it myself. In these shitty times, that’s a pretty great thing.
Matthew Sholtz, AndroidPolice:
I expected a casual affair with simplistic mechanics, but boy, was I wrong. [...] I was pleasantly surprised by Crux, so it's definitely worth checking out if you're looking for a game that requires skill to play.
Edwin van Beinum & Samwoo Ee, Seven Days To Play
This is a quite original idea - I don’t think I’ve seen a puzzle climbing game before. [...] There is a certain grace to scaling walls that is accurately captured here. [...] I got into the groove of things pretty easily - and by the sixth day I was seeing the matrix. [...] A surprisingly deep game.
Data (latest update: June 6th 2021)
-
200,000 installs
-
90,100 accounts created
-
90k/5k MAU (best/worst month)
-
10 million level attempts
-
4.9 million minutes total play time
-
241,000 achievements since 01/2021
-
6,200 player-made levels
-
09:50 min average session time
-
392 AppStore ratings (4.0 average)
-
304 PlayStore ratings (4.1 lifetime average)
-
80:20 iOS:Android
Credits & Contact
Credits
Development - Ben Dressler, Helge Wieding
Art - Ben Dressler
Music & Sound - Sophie Albrecht
Technical Consultant: Malte Hildingsson
Thanks
Alexei Vink
Alex Kelsey
Matthias Bäuerle
John Rowlands