Subtractive Runemixer is a work-in-progress RPG by Starbage, recently released for free on Itch.io. I know about it because artist and writer Oma Keeling shared it on Bluesky. It’s a first-person RPGMaker production in you are a gloomy automaton called Caster, who is searching a labyrinth of religious icons and technology for another automaton who wants to kill you.
Along the way, you will delve into dungeons that look like server farms crossed with the original Sonic the Hedgehog Special Stage. Corridors of blocky lights with floors of slanted crystal. Here you will battle pieces of sorrowful e-waste, such as Emotional Outlet and Live Wire. The battles themselves are randomised and turn-based.
I’ve yet to finish Subtractive Runemixer – I dipped in for a quick go over lunch – but I do like its setting. The opening area is a church floating against a sky of seamy pink and purple rock texture, as though you were hallucinating it all while staring at a cavern ceiling. The walls of the church look like bands of TV noise. The motley, glitchy artstyle furthers the core mechanic of runemixing, which is kind of like stirring together paints on a palette to create the most violent shade.
In combat, you first prepare different coloured runes, which takes one turn, and then fire them at your opponent. You can also conjure a series of runes, combining them on the HUD, in order to perform a more powerful move, at the cost of letting the enemy get a few hits in.
Enemies themselves cast and mix runes. The dungeons contain a few esoteric puzzles that might require you to jot down what you’re being attacked with, and replicate that knowledge in some form. It’s a nice show of how a “combat system” can serve as an expressive instrument, not just a means of progress.
The emphasis on colour also inspires the thought that when we talk about philosophical elements in RPGs, we’re also talking about the associated tradition of colour theory. Does fire beat water only because the requisite shades of red and blue sit at certain points on the classic colour wheel?
How can we think differently about elements, which are often the most tedious and predictable parts of RPGs, if we operate more explicitly in terms of complementary or clashing colours? What if abilities had degrees of efficacy based on primary, secondary and tertiary colours, or reinforced each other by means of monochromatic variation?
It may be that Subtractive Runemixer really gets into all this. I’ve only polished off one of the two currently available dungeons. While I’m sure the colour theory association has been explored by other developers, inasmuch as it seems really obvious to me now, the only other RPG I can think of that dabbles in such things overtly is Chrono Cross, with its glorious, triadic field effect mechanic. I’d love to hear about any others that occur to you.
