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# Messhof's Blood Dungeon, a platforming autoshooter, arrives Aug. 25
- URL: https://www.killscreen.com/messhofs-blood-dungeon-a-platforming-autoshooter-arrives-aug-25/
- Published: 2026-08-04T22:19:38.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-04T22:19:38.000Z
- Description: Mark Essen drew it himself again: a weekend Game Maker sketch, animated on a $50 tablet in parked cars, grown over years into a bullet heaven you parkour through.
- Author: Kill Screen Staff
- Tags: Blood Dungeon, Messhof, Mark Essen, Nidhogg, roguelike, platformer, steam, Day of the Devs

A great detail from Mark Essen's [announcement](https://www.gematsu.com/2026/06/messhof-announces-2d-platforming-survival-game-blood-dungeon-for-ps5-xbox-series-and-pc?ref=killscreen.com): much of *Blood Dungeon* was animated on a $50 tablet, in the car, while waiting around for one thing or another. The game began as a weekend Game Maker sketch shared with friends, something Essen kept scratching at “as a way to wind down at night”—and by Essen's own account, the total lack of pressure drove most of the design.

*Blood Dungeon* is a 2D platforming autoshooter—*Vampire Survivors* math strapped to *Nidhogg*\-school movement. You run, climb, and kite through dungeons stocked with more than 100 enemy types, banking blood and bones for upgrades at the Bone Shop between runs, over a dynamic drum-and-bass score by Thomas Hooey. Messhof revealed it at Day of the Devs in June; the [free demo](https://store.steampowered.com/app/4666390/Blood%5FDungeon%5FDemo/?ref=killscreen.com) has sat at 95 percent positive on Steam since, and the [full game](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2431080/Blood%5FDungeon/?ref=killscreen.com) arrives on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on Aug. 25.

I have been covering Essen since Issue 01, when [our 2011 profile](https://www.killscreen.com/mark-essen-messhof-experimental-game-design-discomfort/) described a designer whose games thrive on discomfort, from the sickening drone of *Randy Balma: Municipal Abortionist* to the merciless difficulty of *Flywrench*. *Nidhogg* took that sensibility mainstream; last year's *Wheel World* took it pastel. *Blood Dungeon* is the first Messhof release since *Nidhogg* with Essen's own art back onscreen, and it's self-published—the studio betting on itself again.

Essen rarely posts and never over-explains. A playable demo three weeks from launch is about as loud as the studio gets; take the hint.

![An upgrade screen offering the Fireworks charm, which makes enemies explode into small bullets, in Blood Dungeon](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/08/blood-dungeon-screenshot-01.jpg)

![A round creature bursts into green splatter across a stone dungeon in Blood Dungeon](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/08/blood-dungeon-screenshot-03.jpg)

![An upgrade screen offering the Freeze Ring weapon beside a character named Baby in Blood Dungeon](https://storage.ghost.io/c/25/84/2584b75d-4bd6-4cce-8259-f1d1c65abbb5/content/images/2026/08/blood-dungeon-screenshot-04.jpg)

**Blood Dungeon*’s waves and upgrade screens (via [Steam](https://store.steampowered.com/app/2431080/Blood%5FDungeon/?ref=killscreen.com))