Above and Below creator brings endless runner video games to the tabletop in Megaland

Ryan Laukat, the designer of Above and Below, Near and Far, and Eight-Minute Empire, has revealed his next game – and it’s something quite different.

Megaland is a push-your-luck game inspired by endless runner video games such as Temple Run, where players compete to get as far as they can in a continuous level without hitting any obstacles or dying.

In Megaland, players choose their character and enter a level in search of treasure, revealing cards to progress further and further into the world.

However, they might also encounter various hazards and enemies, taking damage and losing hearts – unless they’re able to jump over the hazards, Mario-style.

The players push their characters as far as they like in the level, but lose everything they collected if their health points are completely depleted.

After successfully running a level, the players can buy buildings and extra hearts to gain abilities, coins and additional health to help them progress further into the level next time around. Once a player reaches 20 coins, the game ends.

Megaland sounds much lighter and less story-focused than Laukat’s previous games, playing in around 20 minutes with up to five people. It still features the designer-artist’s signature visual style, though, bringing to life the slime monsters, bunnies and more encountered during runs.

The game is exclusive to supermarket chain Target in the US, but should hopefully find its way over to the UK.

Megaland is due for release this autumn.