As a rabid consumer of roguelites and roguelikes and having just recently beat Vampire Crawlers, I’m always on the look out for my next “number go up” fix. Blood Dungeon, from Messhof, seems like it’ll scratch that itch while providing a new challenge I haven’t quite experienced frequently in the genre: platforming.
Co-founder of Messhof Mark Essen describes Blood Dungeon as a 2D survival platformer; think Vampire Survivors meets Spelunky with its own quirky, charming “MS paint” kind of art-style you might recognize from Messhof’s earlier games, like Nidhogg. They’re glowing comparisons that proved their merit when I had a chance to play at Summer Games Fest’s Play Days. Though there is a free demo available on Steam right now, the build I played had everything unlocked.
Even still, it was challenging enough I couldn’t complete my first two runs—just a few wave bosses including a quintessential giant worm.
The idea behind each run of Blood Dungeon is fairly simple. Essen said it’s “really about running and jumping,” which it is, as your weapons fire automatically just like they do in Vampire Survivors. But instead of a top-down view, you’re in a 2D maze, where you can freely climb walls and even the ceiling.
Enemies approach from all sides, threatening to touch your character and deplete a heart—marking you closer to death and the end of the run. Killing enemies and collecting blood—as one does—levels you up, unlocking new weapons, upgrades, and passive charms to help keep the onslaught of weird little (and big) guys at bay.
The unlocking of abilities is satisfyingly presented like the pull of a slot machine, granting options to choose from each time, labeled by rarity. Your choices can propel you to victory or bury you in trouble, which can still be very silly and fun. Where a great synergy can carry you through a run, failing to discern what you need next results in an underperforming build that won’t be able to keep up with each wave as they swell in difficulty.
Or, like me, you can choose something out of immense curiosity and get yourself killed outright. I couldn’t say no to the allure of an ability that would randomly teleport me to different spots of the map. Sounds super interesting, right? Well, I was unaware of an underwater portion of the level still buried beneath eventually breakable blocks. Of course it was the first area I teleported to and, hilariously, I promptly drowned.
But now I know not to take that ability in that area. The geometry of each arena is static, allowing you to get to know it—and the locations of its static powerups like dynamite—giving you an advantage as your real-world experience grows.
There are also randomly placed elements like locked doors and keys, but Essen explained that the more “meta” strategy is to bounce between the different statically placed altars around the level, so knowing where they are will give you a great advantage. Chests randomly appear in these alters, and when you collect one, another will appear at a different altar.
Each run sends you “home” to a base area with Bones to spend at the Bone Shop, where you can buy permanent upgrades. There are nine characters, each with different abilities and merits, and six different arenas to unlock.
There are also quests that unlock both tangible upgrades and cosmetics like character skins. The loop is evident and familiar—go on a fun frenetic run, unlock new things, repeat—a borderline addicting recipe that keeps me saying “just one more run.”
I loved the quirky, silly designs of the playable characters when I saw them, and admire them even more after speaking with Essen about them.
Over time, he would sketch ideas, some with motives in mind and other times, not so much.
“Sometimes, the name is the joke, like, Skinja. It’s a naked ninja and he’s fast,” Essen described.
Leggy is a spider, so he’s got to have webs, and Essen knew he needed a big character, one who has a big hit box and a big weapon to make up for it.
“Another one is like, I’m not quite sure what this character is, but I drew them, and I like them,” Essen said.
So of course, that character made it into the game, too.
Besides the starting character, Gun Man, I played as Hypnomancer, who uses a gas attack. It used to have mind control waves (thus the name), Essen explained, which eventually turned into this “mystical” gas. When their sound guy made a fart joke, it stuck—and Essen insisted I play with the headphones on so I could experience the sound effect.
The humor in Blood Dungeon definitely comes off as inane slapstick, which isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but it warmly reminds me of the kind of stupid jokes and silly sound effects a group of close friends would make while goofing off with each other. (Like my group of silly friends.)
Blood Dungeon was actually made little by little by Essen as a fun side-project over the last few years, sending it to friends as he went to see what they thought. Those friends injected some good ideas into the project—like the idea to include a scoring system to keep you coming back after you’ve “mastered” the game.
“More recently, I’ve been here with a bigger team [at Messhof],” Essen explained. “We’re gonna be working on big games [like Wheel World, most recently], which are ambitious. We do our best and it’s hard work.”
But sometimes, Essen wants something to do that’s low-pressure. That kind of became his routine—work on a big game, then at night, chip away on a project for fun. In this case, sketching things out casually became Blood Dungeon, and eventually, a team came together to bring it to the finish line.
“Sometimes things grow into bigger projects, but this one stayed kind of the same size and stayed fun,” Essen said.
Blood Dungeon is releasing late this summer on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, and I think I’ll have as much fun playing it as Essen had making it.
Casey DeFreitas is IGN’s Deputy Editor of Guides. Catch her on socials @ShinyCaseyD.
