DeadXDead

Jonathan Guernon

About this game

Wake up in the Dungeons with a rusty sword. Fight your way out. Die. Wake up again, a little stronger, in a castle that has rebuilt itself around you.

DEAD x DEAD is a 2D action roguevania: every run cuts a new path through levels generated for that run, and every death sends you back to the start with what you earned for good.

A CASTLE THAT IS NEVER THE SAME TWICE

Multiples biomes over multiples stages, every level built anew each run: the Dungeons, the Gallows Path, the Putrid Sewers, a Royal Greenhouse, Ramparts under a setting sun, a Bog under the moon, a Crimson Manor, a Hamlet on stilts, a Valley of Graves, a Belfry of turning gears, a Sepulcher where the dark itself bites... Each biome has its own rules, its own foes and its own music. The doors at the end of a level open on the next stage's biomes: you choose the route, and the world map shows the way you came.

FOUR BOSSES

The Warden, who hurls powder kegs across his hall. The Chained Eye. The Time Keeper on her great dial. The Colossus, in the lava haven. Each has a second phase, and each one's fall opens the road on.

FIGHT WITH INTENT

Two weapons and two skills at a time. Swords, a dagger, a spear, an executioner's greatsword, a whip, a hammer, a rapier, a frost axe, a bow, a crossbow, a shield that parries. Fire grenades, wolf traps, bolt turrets, frost novas. Bleeding, burning, freezing, stunning. Critical hits from behind, on the last blow of a combo, on a frozen foe, after a roll. Every enemy shows its attack before it lands, a pose and a red glow, then commits to it: read it, dodge it, punish it. Twenty-five kinds of enemies, and in most levels an elite with a purple aura and a guaranteed reward.

WHAT YOU KEEP

The cells dropped by fallen foes are spent at the Reliquary, between biomes: more healing flasks, a forge for better loot, more health, a second weapon to start with. Blueprints found along the way add new weapons to the castle, if you carry them out alive. Scrolls that make you stronger, mutations to choose (vampirism, frenzy, second wind...), cursed chests, gold and a merchant, cracked walls that hide secret rooms, and runes that open new ways for good.

PAINTED, THEN LIT

Every character is a 3D model rendered into pixels and lit by the torches around it. The scenery is painted, then pixelated; the light is dynamic, the fog drifts, the embers rise. The music is written as you play and swells when a fight starts.

PLAY IT YOUR WAY

On a phone, Run mode: the hero runs on his own, the left of the screen jumps, the right strikes, a swipe rolls, one thumb on each side. Prefer buttons? The on-screen gamepad sits over the game or on its sides (or under it, on a tablet). A Bluetooth controller or a keyboard work too. Landscape and full screen, foldables included.

NO ACCOUNT, NO ADS, NO NETWORK

The whole game is inside the app: it asks for no permission and runs with the network off. No ads, no purchases, no account, nothing collected. English and French, switchable at any time. Made by one person, in Québec.

What’s new

First public release