A first-person action-roguelite about smashing everything zoomers hate: wreck an oligarch's villa and beat the AI slop out of him in the middle of his own datacenter!
ABOUT THE GAME
WHAT IT IS
An intense first-person roguelite shooter.
SETTING
Present day + a "phantom dimension" where disgraced technocrat billionaires run off to. A simulator where you smash an island like Epstein's, AI datacenters, PMC bases and other unpleasant places
PREMISE
A streamer friend drags you into a raid: live on air, with his commentary, you tear apart a crypto-billionaire's private world.
GAMEPLAY FEATURE
Electromagnetic physics – the player's own weapon deals no damage: you kill by turning enemies and objects into projectiles.
WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE
1
A rare present-day setting
The setting is as close as it gets to anyone in the audience, because we all live in the present day and know the memes the game references
2
Enemies and objects are your arsenal
Grab, charge and hurl anyone into anything; charged to the max with a long burst, it explodes.
3
Variety instead of elements
Put together a build that fits your playstyle – through electricity, melee or stolen guns instead of the tired old fire, cold and poison.
4
Constant weapon switching
Take your enemies' weapons; a gun serves you as long as there are rounds in the mag.
5
Streaming as a meta layer and a promotion algorithm
Viewer donations become meta-currency between runs. A chat with hints and a narrative of its own. Twitch API integration
How it plays
Magnetize golden toilets and hurl them… into kamikaze drones, for example. Which you can also throw at somebody else!
Magnetized enemies drop magnetized weapons you can loot. The enemies themselves are inspired by TF2 classes – ditch the sniper's SMG, grab a rocket launcher and turn into a soldier with one button press!
Arenas change the rules
Arenas vary: the game has a class of arenas where instead of the banal task of killing everyone the player has to do unusual tasks, inspired by sports like football, basketball or fencing
BENCHMARK: VOID BREAKER
A solo developer already proved there is demand for our niche. We take his core and fix the weak spots
VOID BREAKER
A game by a solo developer. Roguelike FPS: hurl objects at enemies, collapse buildings onto crowds of robots, beat the AI that uses people as mining farms and locked you in an endless simulation.
2.2k
reviews, Very Positive (91%) — demand in the niche proved by one person.
WHERE WE TAKE IT FURTHER
1. Evil with a face
Not a generic AI, but a crypto-billionaire's private dimension + a streamer friend.
2. Depth instead of elements
Three builds and stolen weapons instead of "one gun per run".
3. Bosses don't break the loop
The boss stays inside the same combat, instead of turning into a separate mini-mode.
4. Streaming as a mechanic
A streamer mode where chat affects gameplay - a built-in marketing engine that Void Breaker doesn't have.
A TYPICAL FAILURE IN THE GENRE
Let's look at why similar projects fail
GALACTIC VAULT
Assemble devastating weapons on the fly in this blend of movement shooter and roguelike action. Sprint, slide and dash while robbing high-tech vaults. Stack upgrades, abilities and grenades for insane synergies and survive the spreading infection.
123 reviews
Typical problems that lead to low sales
1. Monotonous level design
The roguelike-standard system of box arenas connected by corridors gets old. You need to add arenas with unique gameplay (for example, there's a prototype arena where you have to kick a ball into the goal with melee attacks while fighting off enemies at the same time. Mechanics like that have big viral potential), and also exploration between arenas (in our case underwater gameplay, for example). And make the arenas themselves uniquely shaped, not boxes
2. A setting that barely hooks
The genre is guilty of the same old "kill robots in a sci-fi environment" template. Worth swapping it for the present day with memes
3. A weak upgrade system
Lots of boring stat upgrades that don't change gameplay. In our game upgrades split into 3 types – stats ("boring"), new verbs ("interesting"), and weapon upgrades (that same weapon you picked up off an enemy)
NARRATIVE
You're an ordinary gamer. A streamer friend (a MrBeast archetype) drags you into a "phantom dimension" - a raid on a crypto-billionaire's private world. Live on air, with his commentary, you tear apart the oligarch's empire and haul out the dirt. The further you go, the bigger the conspiracy.
TONE
power-fantasy · dark humor · eat-the-rich · stream culture
“we're cooked, chat”
— your friend's reaction when he decrypts the first dirt on the villain.
STREAMING: TWO MODES
A game about a streamer, made for streaming. The solo game is complete on its own; streamer mode is a reach multiplier.
SOLO MODE
You're a gamer on stream. Viewer donations (in-game, fictional ones) turn into meta-currency between runs. A full single-player game is the foundation of the project. The chat has a narrative of its own and gameplay hints
STREAMER MODE
Real Twitch chat affects gameplay live: viewers take part in the run (stacking modifiers, for example) instead of just watching. An optional layer on top of the solo game. For giant streamers there are mini-levels where character lines are addressed to them personally, plus memes and references to their content. Standard Twitch integrations can be used: Twitch EventSub for live channel events, Twitch Chat / Chatbot API for chat commands and reactions.
WHAT'S IN IT FOR A PUBLISHER
A game about streaming → streamers and their audiences become an organic funnel. Clippable combos with electromagic – potential for shorts and TikToks.
DEVELOPMENT
A solo developer built a playable core. The budget goes to the people listed below and to assets
DONE SOLO
Combat system and 6 loops
Enemy AI with coordination and roles
Electro-physics and interactions
Progression: several independent skills and starting weapons
5 enemy types + a boss
HIRING / OUTSOURCE
2 voice actors
Composer + music licenses
THE AUTHOR'S ROLE
Game design + technical director. I also take on level design and animation
MARKETING
The game should spread organically - three reach engines with almost no UA budget.
STREAM ENGINE
The streamer funnel: one played it, liked it, another found out, it reached a giant – he played through to the mini-level about himself, other giants got interested too.
RAGEBAIT ON TWITTER
An edgy setting comes with provocation and it's pretty topical. Right now a lot of YouTube videos about the prototypes of our villains are pulling in huge view counts. Using Epstein as the idea for the antagonist will be a strong move over the next year. Speaking of ragebait, here's the perfect example of how, I think, it should be done (not calling for hate speech, it's just that here it created a big discussion and a lot of wishlists)
CLIP POTENTIAL
With the potential for creative combos and that much freedom, short-form content (TikTok, YT Shorts) is going to be pretty easy to make
PRODUCTION
From a finished combat core to release, ~12 months from signing.
50–60
minutes for a successful run
4–6
hours for full playtime
$10
price, $6–7 on sale
So what we have is a small shooter with a business model of going viral with streamers and collecting impulse buys at a low price on the hype wave.
Now
0
Systems + 1 biome + boss are done (6 months already invested)
Announce
3 mo.
Steam page + playtest launch
Demo
6 mo.
Polish and publishing the demo on Steam based on playtest results
Beta
9 mo.
Biomes, bosses, enemy design, voice acting, music, final polish
Release 1.0
12 mo.
Release on Steam (PC)
SLOPHAMMER
WHAT WE NEED
A publisher and an investor - ideally one company
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Steam release, help with legal matters
Marketing and promotion
Help finding a team
Mentorship: game feel, working with an audience
Help buying assets on marketplaces
Help with QA and localization
FROM THE INVESTOR
Funding for development and marketing
Amount: around $50k for development
Use of funds for development: voice acting, music, assets.
Use of funds for marketing: launching the streamer funnel, working on the Steam page, trailer costs
