Inside TeeKru — The First Steps into Yachimu, Combat, and Controls

This month has focused on three big areas: player feel, exploration, and the opening journey into ALARM. Much of the work has been about connecting systems and turning separate mechanics into a more cohesive experience.

⚔ Combat That Moves With You

A major focus this month has been refining controls and combat responsiveness.

We’ve been finalizing bindings for both mouse and keyboard and controller, along with dynamic on-screen help that automatically switches based on your input device. Prompts now reflect your actual bindings, keeping everything consistent with how you choose to play.

We’ve also continued tuning combat through camp encounter testing, focusing on fluid, mobile combat built around movement, crowd control, and pressure.

Highlights this month

• Expanded bow combo moveset

• Added directional dodge integration

• Continued combat feel and control tuning

• Ongoing work tightening the connection between movement and attacks

As always, movement matters. Standing still in ALARM is usually a bad idea.

And many of these decisions continue to be shaped by Steam Deck as a kind of north star for us. If ALARM runs well, plays well, and remains readable on Steam Deck, that tends to improve the experience everywhere.

🗺 Mapping the Wilds of Yachimu

While combat evolves, the world continues taking shape.

Krucifear has been deep in Yachimu, shaping traversal-first terrain across the biome.

This work goes well beyond visual design. Roads, elevation, flow, and line-of-sight are all being refined with hoverboard movement, exploration, and encounter spaces in mind.

Recent work includes:

• Sculpting chasms, tunnels, and multi-level mine spaces

• Refining road networks with traversal flow in mind

• Expanding verticality for exploration and movement variety

• Ongoing terrain passes to improve navigation and encounters

This has also opened new spaces and interactions, including underwater areas now supporting swimming and combat.

In parallel, work has begun on the new interactive in-game map, designed to support exploration at scale and integrate with Fog of War as it develops.

Exploration has always been central to ALARM, and these systems reinforce that sense of mystery and reward.

🌊 Building ALARM’s Opening Journey

This month also marks the start of building the game’s opening sequence.

This is where story, mechanics, atmosphere, and exploration begin converging.

We’ve talked before about the first 15 minutes teaching through discovery. This month we began putting those beats into the game.

Early moments currently being built include:

• Learning to use Glim’s Tail Light

• Using Nodus scanning

• Digging through the cave to reach water

• First swimming and underwater movement

• Early encounters with Concubines and underwater combat

• Surfacing near Stillreach, where the Medic may be needed after what you just swam through

From there, players are encouraged to seek out Turbo and obtain their hoverboard…

…or ignore that entirely.

A.L.A.R.M. nudges. It doesn’t railroad.

From that point, players can follow the main thread, explore freely, begin terraforming, or define their own path.

That openness is core to the experience.

And reaching Turbo isn’t just a quest beat, it’s an early glimpse of how traversal opens up in ALARM.

✦ From the Archives of the Father of Arquanum

As we began shaping the opening of the game this month, we kept returning to one idea that sits deep in ALARM’s lore.

A quote from Dr. Bones Marrow, known in the world of A.L.A.R.M. as the Father of Arquanum:

“Nature prunes the mind to make it efficient… and small. But autistic minds resist that pruning. Dense. Layered. Unrestricted. Not flawed. Ripe. Perfect for Arquanum.”

This idea sits close to the philosophical heart of ALARM, and in many ways echoes through the world, its characters, and why this story exists at all.

🔭 Looking Ahead

Next we’ll continue refining:

• Combat feel and encounter pacing

• Expansion of exploration systems and Fog of War

• Intro flow and early progression

• Ongoing work across Yachimu and map systems

Much of this month has been about turning individual systems into a cohesive experience, and that’s one of the most satisfying phases of development.

As always, thank you for following along and supporting us on this journey.

See you next month in Inside TeeKru.