Hello everyone!
Today, we're making a brand new prototype available through a free Steam Playtest.
First things first: this is not our next announced game, and it does not represent the quality of a finished product. It's a very early prototype, built to answer one simple question: is this idea actually fun to play?
It's also something completely different from anything we've released before. Exploring new genres, mechanics and concepts has always been part of our studio's DNA, and this prototype is another example of that mindset.
Gladiator Survivors is an auto-shoot bullet heaven roguelite FPS. In this first-person Survivors-like, you play as a gladiator wielding up to six futuristic weapons simultaneously to survive waves of enemies in arena combat. Shoot, upgrade your arsenal, unlock new abilities, and see how far you can go!
Alongside our other projects, a second team is exploring ideas for future games. In fact, every game we've ever released started as a prototype. Some prototypes become full games. Many never do. And that's perfectly normal.
We've decided to be much more transparent about this part of our work. Keeping prototypes behind closed doors brings us very little, while sharing them early can teach us a great deal. The sooner we receive feedback, the sooner we can understand whether an idea deserves to be developed further, redirected... or simply abandoned. And since many of you have been part of our Discord community for a long time, helping us improve our games over the years, it felt only natural to invite you into this process from the very beginning.
If you decide to join the Playtest, we have a small challenge for you: can you reach Wave 10? If you can, tell us how. If you can't, tell us why. We're much less interested in your score than in understanding what made you want to keep playing... or what made you stop. Also sharing your kill counter at the highest point you can reach is very cool to hear!
This prototype may become a game one day... or it may not. Either outcome is a success. If the concept works, we'll know it's worth investing more development time into it. If it doesn't, we'll have learned something valuable before spending years building the wrong game. That's exactly what prototypes are for.
If you'd like to help us, simply join the free Steam Playtest and share your feedback in the dedicated Discord channel.
Feel free to share it wherever you like, invite anyone to join the Playtest, create content, or stream the game. The more diverse the people who try this prototype, the more meaningful the lessons we'll learn from it.
Finally, if you enjoy seeing games before they become games, grab the Prototype role on Discord and join the dedicated channel. It's for everyone who wants to follow our experiments and help shape our future projects. We'll regularly share new concepts, ideas and prototypes there, long before they become finished games... if they ever do.
Thank you for being part of the journey.