The developer of Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 and Hamilton's Great Adventure is back with a new dungeon crawler that features some interesting twists on the genre.

“We are proud to announce a game that has been on our minds for over 10 years," says Martin Wahlund, CEO and executive producer at Fatshark. "We have always been fans of the classic top down RPGs, and have wanted to make this game since we started out in the games business.”

Krater is the Swedish word for crater, and it's the primary setting for the top-down, post-apocalyptic action/RPG. Players will continually go deeper into the crater in search of rare loot and new playable characters. You'll control three different characters all at once, utilizing their varying skills against constant enemy encounters. The four character classes include medic, crowd control, tank, and DPS (damage per second), though the names aren't final. You could load up on all tanks, but it's probably better to mix and match. Each character has two special skills, so you'll have access to six at any given time. Four-player co-op has been confirmed, though it's not final whether everyone will still have all have three characters.

The main reason for all this uncertainty is that the game is currently in alpha, but also Fatshark is taking inspiration from fellow Swedes Majong and releasing early versions for consumers to play and offer feedback on. Those interested in shaping Krater can sign up at Kratergame.com. Tests will begin in early 2012.

The idea is that the first round of play will be low-cost or most likely free. Then, as Fatshark hones the gameplay based on feedback, the price will slowly increase over time, but players will be already covered for the final retail version of the game. Krater will release in 2012 on PC and Mac officially after all the testing is complete. After that, the idea is that once everything is finely tuned and locked in, the game will port over to consoles like PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.