The development team at Doinksoft have revealed their latest project, set to be published by Devolver Digital sometime in the future. Titled Dark Scrolls, the game is a pixel-art dungeon scroller scheduled for release on PC and Nintendo Switch. The game aims to combine traditional dungeon exploration with high-intensity combat mechanics and roguelike progression systems.
Players can choose from a roster of nine different characters, including a burly berserker and a rat that plays the saxophone. Each hero features unique skills, specific side objectives, and customisable trinkets. Combat involves a variety of ranged and melee attacks, such as hurling axes or flipping steaks, as players navigate through procedurally generated levels built from hand-crafted rooms.
Dark Scrolls supports both solo play and cooperative modes, which can be accessed locally or online. When playing in co-op, participants can coordinate strategies and revive one another during a run. As players progress through the branching paths and face various bosses, they can collect coins to spend at Bruce & Goose’s Shoppe. This location offers various upgrades, including new perks, powerful attacks, and allies that can be summoned to assist in battle.
While Dark Scrolls aims to utilise an aesthetic inspired by 1980s arcade visuals and sound design, it aims to counter that with modern control schemes and design elements. The difficulty is designed to increase as players move further into the dungeon, requiring quick reflexes to manage the traps and enemies encountered.
Cullen Dwyer from developer Doinksoft offered his perspective on the modern classification of roguelike games and how his team is contributing to the genre:
Whenever I search for ‘roguelike’ I don’t find what I’m looking for. I get a poker game or a pachinko game or a heartfelt narrative about a Greek god or a Yu-Gi-Oh! card game. How are those at all like a 1980s turn-based, grid-locked dungeon crawler that you can play in the command line with vim control bindings? They have ‘randomness’? Pathetic. And here I am, part of the problem. Might as well call it a Metroidvania too
No release date has been confirmed for Dark Scrolls, with one set to be confirmed later this year.
