Former Piranha Bytes devs Jenny and Björn Pankratz (Pithead Studio) surprise-released their dungeon crawler Cralon today—completely out of the blue. In an age of endless pre-launch marketing, that’s a pretty player-friendly move. Unfortunately, the game itself gives you plenty to grumble about when it comes to quality.

When I got the news today that Pithead Studio had suddenly dropped Cralon with no warning at all, I was genuinely surprised. I’d been expecting the usual months-long marketing cycle, followed at some point by a release date parked somewhere in the distant future. Clearly, though, the Pankratz couple had other ideas.

Whether Caggtus 2026 was really the right moment to throw Cralon to the crowd is another matter. With touchstones like Ultima Underworld and Arx Fatalis, Pithead’s single-player debut is stepping into some very big shoes—and players already expect a hell of a lot from anything even remotely adjacent to the immersive sim space those games occupy.

To even come close to meeting those expectations, Cralon 1.0 would have needed to launch in solid technical shape. Sadly, and it pains me to say this as a dungeon crawler fan, that’s just not what happened.

Even the demo painted a bleak picture

The warning signs were already there in the demo that came out ahead of release. Player feedback praised the game’s dense underground atmosphere, but the overall takeaway was still that it had "a lot of room for improvement."

And apparently, not much has changed since then. Personally, I don’t put much stock in Steam user reviews—especially when they’re posted after barely an hour of playtime.

But in Cralon’s case, the demo is already hanging over the store page and the attached forum like a cloud. A lot of players already know exactly what kind of shape Cralon is in, and that makes it even easier to judge it fast.

Riding the Caggtus spotlight?

Bugs, lousy performance, poor playability: the reactions make it sound like Pithead Studio didn’t just release Cralon too early—they released it way too early. Maybe the Pankratz guys wanted to make the most of the extra attention around Caggtus. The two of them did appear on the GameStar stage there, after all. And honestly, I’d get it. Attention is hugely important for a brand-new indie studio.

On the other hand (and this is where it stops being player-friendly) it now feels like we’re looking at an Egosoft-style early access situation. In other words: it may not say "Early Access" on the tin, but the game still clearly isn’t finished. That said, I seriously doubt Pithead will drop its debut like a hot potato. This game matters far too much for that; the duo’s post-Piranha Bytes reputation is riding on it.

We’ll have to wait and see whether I’m right, but I really hope I am. For one, I can’t get enough of "modern" dungeon crawlers. And for another, I was always fond of Piranha Bytes, which, in a way, now lives on through Pithead Studio. So: get cracking. 😉

Dungeon crawling like it’s 20-plus years ago

In Cralon, you play as the title character Cralon—also known as "the Brave." He’s chasing a nasty demon that has casually "confiscated" all the residents of a nearby village and dragged them off. During the pursuit, though, Cralon falls down the shaft of an old mine and has to find a way back out.

Down in the underworld, the hero encounters hostile creatures as well as allies. He uncovers secrets and gradually works his way toward the dungeon’s dark core. Could the demon be waiting there? And was Cralon’s fall part of a bigger setup?

To find out, you explore a large seamless dungeon from a first-person perspective, moving through a range of different environments. Unlike many old-school genre staples, Cralon leans more heavily into story, with twists, side quests, crafting, and horror elements thrown into the mix. The trailer below shows it all in motion—apparently running on an absolute beast of a PC.