GraveRaiders - Proximity Voice System

Voice Chat Usually Doesn’t Matter

In most co-op games, voice chat lives outside the game.

You can whisper, shout, panic, or narrate your entire thought process — none of it changes how the world reacts. Discord runs in the background, and the game treats communication as free.

That disconnect always bothered me.

GraveRaiders is about tension, positioning, and surviving bad situations together. If footsteps, lighting, and noise already matter, it felt wrong for voice to be exempt from that system.

So instead of treating voice chat as a utility, I wanted it to behave like any other signal in the world.

How Voice Works in GraveRaiders

Your voice creates noise. Enemies can react to it.

• Quiet speech keeps attention low
• Normal talking draws nearby investigation
• Shouting or panicking can pull everything in the area

If someone gets excited about loot or yells a callout at the wrong time, that choice has consequences.

There’s one more constraint that changes how teams play:
you can only hear teammates within about 30 meters.

If you split up, voice communication fades out entirely.

Staying together makes coordination easier but also makes you louder as a group. Distance gives safety, but at the cost of information.

The Kind of Moments This Creates

What I like most about this system is that it doesn’t force scenarios — it lets them happen.

Sometimes it’s subtle. A quiet run where everyone stays disciplined and slips past threats.

Sometimes it’s chaos. Someone raises their voice, enemies react, and the entire plan collapses.

You get moments where a player deliberately draws attention to save a teammate. Others where someone panics and pulls half the dungeon. And occasionally, someone goes silent because they wandered too far and no one can reach them.

None of that is scripted. It comes from players interacting with each other under pressure.

Why It Fits the Game

GraveRaiders is a dark fantasy extraction shooter roguelite about risk management.

Every run is a series of small decisions:

• Push forward or fall back
• Grab more loot or extract early
• Stay quiet or speak up

Making voice part of that decision space adds tension without adding complexity. You don’t learn a new mechanic — you just become more aware of how you communicate.

And yes, it’s also funny when things go wrong.

Why I’m Sharing This Now

The game is still early.

I’m not showing polished trailers or cinematic gameplay yet. I’m sharing systems. The foundations that define how GraveRaiders feels to play.

This isn’t just a co-op roguelite with combat.
It’s a game where communication itself carries risk.

If that sounds like something you’d enjoy, I’m building this for you.

And if you’ve ever blamed a friend for ruining a stealth run,
you already understand the idea.

Follow Development

I’m keeping development transparent and grounded. No fake hype. Just building and sharing.

• Twitter / X — dev updates & behind-the-scenes
• Discord — feedback, discussion, chaos
• Steam Wishlist — playtests & updates (coming soon)

Closed alpha tests are planned for Q3 2026.
Wishlisters will be prioritized — especially the ones who break things.

Got thoughts? Questions?
Drop a comment or join the Discord. I read everything.

— DarkLoom Studio