Messhof's Blood Dungeon, a platforming autoshooter, arrives Aug. 25

A great detail from Mark Essen's announcement: 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 has sat at 95 percent positive on Steam since, and the full game 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 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.