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Watch trailer on Steam ↗Cyclopean: The Great Abyss
Schmidt Workshops · Published by Schmidt Workshops
Very Positive — 89% positive (176 reviews) · 16 achievements
Last updated 28 Sept 2026
Cyclopean: The Great Abyss is a small scale, mechanics driven CRPG/Roguelike in a retro, monochromatic style, that takes place in the underworld of H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands.
£5.95
£8.50Lowest price we've ever recorded
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Price history
Adventure, Indie, RPG · 2025 · More £5 - £15 games
Embark on an adventure through the monochromatic underworld of H.P. Lovecraft's Dreamlands with Cyclopean: The Great Abyss, an indie RPG by Schmidt Workshops, released in 2025.
About this game
Trapped in the Great Abyss!
You are an old dreamer who, through unforeseen circumstances, has found himself trapped in the Great Abyss, the vast underworld beneath the Dreamlands. Use the resources at your disposal, weapons, armor, supplies, and any alliances you have with the locals, to explore and learn the secrets of the underworld, in order to make your way back to the upper Dreamlands, or back to the Waking World.
Cyclopean: The Great Abyss seems simple at first, but the gameplay becomes more complex as players learn the intricacies of its various systems. Read the in-game dialogue and text carefully, and you may actually learn some useful things.
A Variety of Strategies
Although combat plays a big role in the game, it is not the only means of achieving one's goals. Players may find it much more useful to use a combination of combat, stealth and/or dialogue to deal with the inhabitants of the nether realms. In fact, the game will punish you severely if you try to fight everything as a low level character, so try to manage your gold, health, alliances and sanity carefully as you traverse the Great Abyss.
Old School CRPG
Cyclopean follows the tradition of early CRPGs like Ultima, Questron, and Legacy of the Ancients (among others) in that it presents two differing views of the game world. Outside of dungeons, you see your character from the top down in a 2D display of the map. Whereas, in dungeons, the view changes to a 3D, first person perspective.
Choose Your Dreamer Carefully
When you start the game you will be presented with a random dreamer, with basic abilities and equipment, and any alliances they have. You can choose to play as that person, or "reroll" to see if you can find a better option. Cyclopean gives you the freedom to choose from a wide variety of stodgy sounding English upper class gentlemen to play as. 
Turn Based Gameplay
The gameplay and combat is all turn based, allowing you to make strategic decisions. Enemies are dangerous, but polite, and will wait their turn.
Alliances
Some characters will start the game with an alliance in place. This can be very helpful in the early stages, especially for new players. Alliances allow you to have some of the various denizens of the Great Abyss join your party, and help to fight other enemies. New alliances can be formed during the game by finding and reading the right books.
Roguelike Mode
As of Version 0.9.936, you can now opt to play Cyclopean: The Great Abyss as a roguelike game with perma-death. The game will now prompt you when you first start it, whether you want the traditional CRPG experience or Roguelike Mode. You can always switch back by using the Options menu to restore the default settings. Games played in Roguelike Mode are not accessible via normal mode, and vice versa.
Game Manual
There are many other game mechanics and other things that are described in the game manual. The manual has been fully integrated with the game, so you can bring it up at any time, to learn about the various game mechanics available.
Use the options menu to change game settings including the color...
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- OS *: Windows XP / Vista / Win 7 / Win 8 / Server 2008 / Server 2012, 32 Bit or 64 Bit
- Processor: AMD Athlon or Intel Pentium
- Memory: 1 GB RAM
- Graphics: 64 MB video card
- DirectX: Version 9.0c
- Storage: 500 MB available space
- Sound Card: Yes, if you want to hear anything.
Recommended
- OS *: Windows XP / Vista / Win 7 / Win 8 / Server 2008 / Server 2012, 32 Bit or 64 Bit
- Processor: AMD Phenom II X4 965 or Intel Core i5-3470 3.2GHz
- Graphics: 256 MB video card
- DirectX: Version 9.0c
- Storage: 500 MB available space
Supported Languages
Latest news
AnnouncementsOfficial
Game Updated to Version 1.1.2u
Negative Health EnemiesIt was possible to re-encounter an enemy who was already dead. This could prevent players from reaching areas in dungeons. I just included a check to make sure enemies had health before triggering the encounter, so this should no longer happen. Text IssuesThere were a couple text issues, grammar and text going over the edge of the box, that have been addressed.Read full article on Community Announcements (MKSchmidt)AnnouncementsOfficial
Game Updated to Version 1.1.2t
Trader/MonstersThere was a bug that caused some hostile monsters to be falsely identified as traders. This would cause the game to be locked, with the player unable to engage in combat or stealth (he game thinking it's a trader) or in dialogue (the game thinking it's a hostile monster). I believe I understand why this was happening, and I removed the possibility of monsters somehow getting assigned as traders. Input DelaySome players were feeling that the game was too sensitive to movement input, so I have added an optional "input_delay" variable in the game's option file. To change it:Run the Game:First run the game, open the options panel, and click "Apply"Exit the game.Find the Options File:Go to:C:\\Users\\-Your Username-\\AppData\\Local\\CyclopeanFind the "Options_7.cfg" file and scroll to the bottom.Change the Option:change:INPUT DELAY,1 to:INPUT DELAY,2 Save the FIle.You can try a higher number if that is insufficient. This will slow down the player's movement when holding the input keys, but it will also give a bigger window for players to release a key/mouse button, preventing double-clicks from happening.Read full article on Community Announcements (MKSchmidt)AnnouncementsOfficial
Game Updated to Version 1.1.2s
Keyboard IssueWhen using keyboard controls, unequipping items was failing to be handled properly. I was able to figure out the problem and it seems to be working as intended now.Lock Pick IssuePicking locks was supposed to succeed if you rolled equal to or higher than the required amount. I forgot the equals sign in the script though, so it would fail if you hit the exact number. Should be working now.Cats in ChestsCats were spawning in chests, and getting stuck on the same tile. I think it's fixed now, but this one is tougher to test. Let me know if you see this happen again. Note: If you already encountered this in a dungeon, and a cat was spawned on a chest, it will still be there. But the game should prevent this from happening again in the future.Treasure Chart MisplacedA treasure chart was misplaced in an inaccessible area. I have moved it so you should be able to reach it. The "bad" chest was under a barrel near Sarkomand, and there is no way to get to it. I am not 100% sure if this will fix the issue for existing games, but it should prevent it from happening again in new games. Tentacle TroublesIt was possible for a tentacle to get under the cliffs near the Zoogs. I have blocked off their access to that area, so they should not be troubling you there again.Read full article on Community Announcements (MKSchmidt)AnnouncementsOfficial
Proton/WINE Mono Sound Issue Workaround
If you are using Steamdeck or WINE on Linux, you will be happy to know that I have identified the problem causing audio to come out of only one speaker. The problem is in WINE/Proton and how it handles audio using DirectSound. I have submitted a full compatibility report to the folks at Valve working on Proton, and hopefully they will be able to address it at some point. But for now, there is a workaround that you can do to get it to operate correctly (if you're into that sort of thing). Have a look at the fix here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/2958790/discussions/0/842880102665635946/ Hopefully this solves it for anyone facing this issue. Please let me know if it worked or not, and feel free to leave a comment if you had to try some other stuff to get it to work.Read full article on Community Announcements (MKSchmidt)Patch NotesOfficial
Small Update
The Remedy Trader was labeled incorrectly as Book Trader.Read full article on Community Announcements (MKSchmidt)
