Windblown: New Action-Roguelike From Dead Cells Dev Gets Release Date, Playable Demo

[Cpt.Jank]

Motion Twin, of Dead Cells fame, has announced the early access release date for its next roguelite, Windblown, which looks to be a much more cheerful affair than the grim-dark Dead Cells, and it's designed for multiplayer, too. Windblown will feature many of the same gameplay elements as Dead Cells, though, including fast-paced hack-and-slash combat, platforming, and permanent death. This time, though, Motion Twin has gone for an isometric perspective, instead of the side-scroller style, and the pixel graphics are swapped out for a cutesy cartoon style and color palette somewhat reminiscent of the likes of Paladins. There also appear to be some nifty bullet-hell-style battles thrown into the mix.

As for the release date and playable demo, Motion Twin has not yet announced when the game will fully release, but a Windblown demo will launch on October 14 during the upcoming Steam Next Fest, and Steam Early Access for the full game arrives on October 24. Motion Twin also says that any progress and unlocks achieved during the playable demo will carry over once the full game launches, which is a nice touch.



Comically, players who play—and presumably complete—the Windblown demo will receive a Guinea Pig character skin, which Twin Motion describes as "A fitting appearance for all of those willing to help us develop Windblown in its Early Access journey."

Wake up warriors! This is Windblown, a lightning-fast action roguelite crafted by Motion Twin, the creators of Dead Cells.

You innocent souls have lived peacefully in The Ark, a floating village orbiting around the gigantic and deadly Vortex. However, don't let that calm existence fool you; your cozy little island is about to get devoured...

Countless warriors, the Leapers, have met their end fighting dreadful emissaries of the Vortex; now it's your turn to save your kind, or turn into cannon fodder trying...

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[rekinianoga]

Wasn't expecting such genericness from Dead Cell's devs.

 

[ahriik]

Wasn't expecting such genericness from Dead Cell's devs.

Well to be fair, Motion Twin handed off Dead Cells development to Evil Empire in 2019 (IIRC, it was a studio spun-off from MT, so I want to say at least a handful of the OG Dead Cells devs moved to Evil Empire - someone correct me if I'm wrong), and apparently Motion Twin has treated EE pretty poorly in recent years. I'm sure there's a much better and more detailed writeup out there about the whole controversy, so I'd recommend looking into it if you're interested.

That is all to say, its not a huge surprise to me that this new game looks pretty meh. I believe most of the core Dead Cells team has been working on that new roguelite 2D Prinse of Persia game.

 

[Vayra86]

Wasn't expecting such genericness from Dead Cell's devs.

Glad you said it, I was worried sounding like a broken record at this point but yeah... from the choice of the title 'something-something in perfect tense' to the graphics to the whole vibe of it.

It just screams generic and totally skippable. I don't get it. How does this sell? Who buys this? Is this normie territory, or what is it exactly? Its like its built for some kind of strange corporate-invented perfect customer or something. I seriously struggle to think what the target audience is supposed to be.

Its a bit like those youtubers that sound way too desperate to be funny, their jokes never are, and their voice is utter cringe so its a problem they will never fix. That's what this type of game just radiates in spades, to me. Maybe its a generational thing and I'm too old for this.

 

[Event Horizon]

It reminds me of one of those free mobile games that pester you to pay to skip the grind.

 

[phints]

Dead Cells is one of the best games I ever played, still do runs even lately. They are maybe my favorite indie devs ever. While I'm confused about the aesthetic they are going for here it's pre-early access so has a long way to go anyway. Will definitely keep an eye on this.