The Looter Release Date

27 Jul 2026Developer post

Steam Playtest Sign-Ups Are Open!

Great news, Looters! Sign-ups for The Looter Steam Playtest are officially live. The playtest is kicking off in the next few weeks, and everyone who signs up will get access as soon as it goes live. Head over to our Steam store page now, click the "Request Access" button, and sec

Great news, Looters! Sign-ups for The Looter Steam Playtest are officially live.

The playtest is kicking off in the next few weeks, and everyone who signs up will get access as soon as it goes live. Head over to our Steam store page now, click the "Request Access" button, and secure your spot immediately!

How to sign up:

Visit The Looter Steam Store page.
Scroll down to "Join The Looter Playtest".
Click "Request Access" .

You will get notified when the Playtest starts.

Behind the scenes: Progress Update

While we prepare the playtest build for launch, we wanted to share a quick look at where development currently stands and what we’ve been busy with behind the scenes lately:

Content Lock Reached: This is an especially massive milestone for us! All required assets are in, every feature is implemented, and The Looter is now fully playable from start to finish internally. Our team is running full playthroughs to evaluate the entire project as a complete package.

Working on the Playtest Build: We are currently making a dedicated playtest build designed specifically for public feedback. This sliced build will give you a focused look at core mechanics while keeping plenty of surprises tucked away for full release!

Polishing, Balancing & Bug Hunting: With our full game content locked in, our day-to-day focus has shifted heavily to fine-tuning. We are deep into tweaking balance, squashing bugs, and polishing every corner so the playtest feels crisp and responsive.

Console Progress: We’re working on bringing The Looter to consoles! Porting requires a lot of underlying technical setup, but controller support and console performance builds are coming along well.

Upcoming Demo: On top of preparing for the playtest, we are actively crafting a standalone demo so even more players can sample the action down the road.

Help Us Shape the Game

Your feedback during this playtest will be vital in helping us fine-tune The Looter. Once you get in, we want to hear everything, from balance suggestions to bug reports!

Make sure to Wishlist the game if you haven't already, join our official Discord server to chat directly with the devs, and tell your friends to sign up for the playtest.

We’ll see you in Tortura very soon!

Original post

02 Jul 2026Developer post

The Looter Dev Update #10: How Tortura Learned to Fight Back

Hello Looters! This time we talk about the main element of our game alongside exploration - combat. These two are the main components of the gameplay loop. You clear the area of enemies and then you explore. Enemy Design Philosophy As you may know from the previous logs, The Loot

Hello Looters!

This time we talk about the main element of our game alongside exploration - combat. These two are the main components of the gameplay loop. You clear the area of enemies and then you explore.

Enemy Design Philosophy

As you may know from the previous logs, The Looter is a shooter game with melee combat as the last resort/utility usage. The basic combat loop is the enemy moving towards the player and our job is to kill it before it reaches us. If it manages to do so we can use a melee weapon or dodge to get away and finish the job from a distance. This is the behavior of the basic cannon fodder enemies. Even though just changing the basic parameters like speed, health or size of the enemy makes a significant difference in how to approach the enemy, we tried to make enemies as interesting and unique as possible.

Main enemy types

Walking enemy - walks from left to right or waits in place. When the player is in aggro range, it chases the player and attacks
Flying enemy - flies between points on the scene. When the player is in range, it attacks the player
Ranged enemy - usually stays in place. When the player is in range, it shoots projectiles towards the player

Unique enemy mechanics

Buff - some mobs can get buffed, which increases their speed and damage
Poison - some mobs inflict a poison status effect on the player
Shield - mobs have some sort of an armor that makes some parts of the enemy invincible to bullets. The player is required to aim for the “uncovered” points
Basic stealth - some enemies will ambush you from hidden spots or hide in the ground

Main enemy stats
Every mob in our game shares these mechanics.

HP - self-explanatory, how many hit points the enemy has
Stun HP - most of the enemies have vital points, like a humanoid's head or a spider’s soft belly. When the player manages to hit those points, the enemy's Stun Meter fills significantly. The Stun Meter will also fill when you hit the enemy outside the vital point but with the 2/3 reduction penalty. When it is full, the enemy goes into a stun state and is vulnerable to the player’s finisher moves. Example: An enemy has 100 HP and 24 Stun HP. The pistol deals 12 HP damage. If you hit the enemy x2 (2x12 = 24) in the vital point or x1 in the vital point and x3 outside the vital point (1x12 + 3x4 = 24), you stun it
Stun Multi - some enemies will receive extra stun damage when hit in the vital point
Mini Stagger - when you normally hit the enemy, it will not interrupt its movement. This might be annoying, making the guns feel weak. We decided to add a mini stagger mechanic. Enemies have a variable that counts how many times they have been hit, and when the number of hits equals that variable, the enemy’s movement is interrupted, it goes into a short stagger phase, and gets knocked back a little. This mechanic makes guns (especially shotgun) feel more powerful and helps to manage multiple enemies
Burn Multi - a burn effect can be applied to enemies and makes them lose HP over time. Some enemies receive more damage than the others

Visual Design + Inspirations

At the beginning of the project, the main idea was to take a common Joe or Jane and make them into the enemy. Basically, something bad happened in the game’s world and it affected the people and animals a great deal and made them turn on each other. Malformed bodies, off-putting hybrids, nightmares with pasted-on faces - works like Resident Evil, Annihilation, Berserk among many others come to mind.

The core thoughts were to make sure the enemies look menacing, dangerous, sometimes uncanny and disturbing, as well as make them seem more ferocious and mutated as the game progresses and the player visits new biomes.

I think we managed to achieve that, while also making the enemies clearly match the biomes they are in, as well as connecting all of them through specific details and color palettes so that you can tell they have the same roots of the mutation. Here are some examples:

Gameplay Role

Enemies are an important part of the whole gameplay loop. You fight them so you can explore the areas in peace. You explore so you can find items that improve your damage, grant new skills like finishers or burn damage that can be used to fight enemies more efficiently.

One may argue that you could just run past all enemies, trigger the story events, beat bosses and finish the game like this. You could definitely do this but it does not lower the importance of the enemies, as they will be there to make your journey more difficult.

Biggest Design Challenges

The biggest challenge in enemy development is avoiding immersion-breaking bugs. Don’t get me wrong, all bugs are bad and have to be fixed but some of them are just hard to predict. The most annoying one is when the enemy is “flickering” - frantically changing direction while staying in one place, which just looks awful. Let’s have a look at the example.

This bug is caused by a case that had not been thought of during the enemy design process. At the beginning, enemies were tested to perform on flat surfaces and this case was unknown

Why does this happen?

Step 1: The enemy has two colliders (in fact, it has way more, but in this case, we will focus just on those two). Enemy See Collider B checks for the Player Collider A, and when the collision occurs, it triggers the enemy to turn towards the player and start chasing him.

Step 2: Enemy Edge Collider C checks for the collision with the Ground Collider D. When there is no collision between the two, it triggers the enemy to turn around.

Step 3: When the enemy turns around, Collider B immediately registers collision with A and causes the enemy to turn around, and we’re at Step 2 again, trapped in the infinite loop unless the player moves away.

Simplified flow of the states described in Steps 1, 2, 3

One of the solutions here is to reduce the collider B size and “trim” it on the back. This however will make the enemy deaf to the player walking behind him which is not ideal.

Finally we added the “Wait on Edge” stage. Transition to this stage is triggered when collision C is not occurring with ground D and B also collides with the player A.

Now the enemy politely waits on the edge instead of making frantic moves

We had many bugs like this, caused by not predicting all possible cases. Some of them were harder, some easier to foresee, and this one was the best to illustrate how designing even simple mechanics can create some peculiar and unexpected bugs.

Three Enemy Examples

Let me share our favourite enemies we have in our game:

Jaga

This one is amongst the oldest of all the monsters in The Looter - I feel like she withstood the test of time, both with her design and mechanics. My favourite part of her design is how she can take the player by surprise by blending into the background in a very grim way. Having her hands tied behind her back, she is forced to attack with powerful jumps. The hood covering her head makes her move erratically, trying to sense her prey. Her clothing is pretty interesting - in Poland it’s called "podomka" - a piece of garment used mostly in the past by women for housework.

Weaver

While this one is pretty straightforward mechanically - either he spits web projectiles and stops you in your tracks or shoots poison projectiles and makes your life miserable while you search for an antidote - I think his visual design came out great. A distorted human body fused with the back of a spider hits those unsettling notes we aimed for.

Avaritia

I chose this one specifically for his move - a charge that starts slow but is deadly and hits like a train. This guy has been inspired by Sloth from Full Metal Alchemist. I feel like he came out very satisfying in gameplay. He also has a neat gimmick where the player has to choose whether he wants to take the long road and kill him by shooting his main body, or the short road by taking out the thing he carries - the latter choice spawns something very fast and nasty, so beware.

Bosses / Stronger Encounters

Bosses are the big enemies placed at the end of each chapter/biome. Our boss design philosophy was that the bosses are kind of the final exam for the chapter. We wanted boss fights to contain the gameplay mechanics from the previous chapter.

Another important aspect of boss design is to have some sort of gimmick or unique mechanic for most of the bosses. For example:

Big Spider Mother Boss - you have to destroy the legs to make it vulnerable to actual damage-dealing attacks.
Warlord Boss - uses ice spears as shields and obstacles for the player, jumps with devastating attacks.

We also tried to make most of the mechanics and combat tactics available during the boss fights so most of the bosses will be vulnerable to stun / critical hits and burn status will be applicable.

So, that will be all for now. We hope you had fun reading this more in-depth kind of bestiary!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1163020/The_Looter/

Original post

24 Apr 2026Developer post

The Looter Dev Update #9: Improvising to Stay Alive

Hey Looters, It’s Walczak again. This article is about crafting, game currency and some game mechanics related to resource management. Why crafting? Crafting became the must have mechanic in most of the adventure games. Survival horrors like Resident Evil or The Last of Us allow

Hey Looters,

It’s Walczak again. This article is about crafting, game currency and some game mechanics related to resource management.

Why crafting?

Crafting became the must have mechanic in most of the adventure games. Survival horrors like Resident Evil or The Last of Us allow players to assemble useful tools or healing items from scraps. This mechanic is so appreciated among gamers that it was introduced even in the series that never had it before like crafting feature making "debut" in Elden Ring while it was not present in previous Fromsoft games.

The Looter is no different. So the brutally honest answer to the question “Why do we have crafting in The Looter” is “Because it is a cool and widely appreciated game mechanic”. Hell there was even a whole TV series MCGyver dedicated solely to crafting as the ultimate problem solving method.

Crafting menu

Benefits of crafting system

My favourite definition of a video game is “Solving problems for fun”. In this case the problem is limited resources. We offer some solutions: upgrade your weapons so you deal more damage and conserve ammo, buy some ammo from the vendor, or buy the blueprint available early in the game and use these cheap and easily obtainable materials.

Another benefit is the flexibility. Our goal was to craft materials to be utilised for different types of items. For example sulfur and saltpeter can be used to produce different types of ammunition. If the player prefers to use shotgun over pistol he will use those materials for shotgun ammo. He will not be left behind with stacks of pistol ammo he barely uses. Alcohol can be used for making antidotes as well as molotov cocktails. Prey is a great example of this flexibility, allowing players to craft items that suit their playstyle from four types of materials Another example and heavy inspiration is The Last of Us where you had about 10-ish crafting materials and different combinations of those were used for a variety of items.

Player can produce 4 different items by combining 3 crafting materials. It gives the players’ flexibility and allows playstyles they prefer.

The next good thing about crafting is that in our system the player needs to obtain the blueprint first to be able to craft an item. It gives the ability to spend game currency on something. What is the point of currency when there is nothing to spend it on. The blueprint can be also utilised as the treasure found in the hidden area but we rarely do it because of the importance of this item.

Last but not least is that crafting makes the game world more interesting and believable. It is more likely that survivors in the post apocalyptic world came up with some ways of producing items using knowledge from the past.

Realism of Crafting

Crafting in The Looter is grounded in real-world logic, but never at the cost of fun. Pistol ammo, for example, uses saltpeter and sulfur, not a full chemistry lesson, but enough to make scavenging feel believable. Alcohol and herbs are used for antidotes which also is reasonable as many medicines consist of those ingredients. In The Looter explosives like flashbangs and frag grenades are created using tin cans, similar to jam tin grenades used by British forces in WWI.

Jam tin grenades

Key items crafting

Sometimes the player will need to craft key items in order to progress the game. This adds a variety to the quests and some more immersion making crafting not only gameplay mechanics but also part of the game’s story. For example, the protagonist has to craft an item for an NPC in trouble. We had to make little tabs in the crafting menu so the key items and consumables are separated and it does not create unnecessary mess and confuses the players.

Key items crafting

Looting as mechanic and lore element

From a lore perspective, the protagonist’s main goal is to collect as many useful items and materials as possible to sell. Rather than collecting a set amount of currency, every loot item has some short description. It was inspired by The Final Station style of picking up valuable items that were instantly “converted” to a game currency. It adds some depth to the world and makes picking up “game gold” more interesting.

Example of loot items names in game

Uses of the Loot

The loot can be used for a variety of things. Just like in the Souls series our game will charge the players some currency every time they need to make some progress. Loot will be needed for upgrading weapons and accessories or buying new ones in the shop. In my opinion it is better to show some items to the players in the shop first, then let them acquire some money and then decide for themselves what they want to spend it on. When the players will miss some hidden areas they will most likely miss some loot but not the important item.

Another way of making sure the players are aware of hidden items is the treasure map feature we added later in the game. If such a map is acquired the checklist appears on the map menu displaying the number of available loot, gear, key items and lore findings on a particular scene.

Improvisation

As I mentioned in the Devlog #6 on designing survival or the biggest and most difficult challenge is to balance the game flow and find the sweet spot between having limited resources and situations where the players have zero resources to progress the game and they are stuck with melee weapons or just running past monsters hoping there will be a pack of ammo in the next room.

Map with the feature showing collected items

Game flow mechanics

To combat these problems, we added some mechanics that will help players when they are in trouble. The first solution is to set the respawning crates on the levels. The monsters will respawn every time the players choose to rest at the bonfire to replenish medkits, ammunition and regain health. Some crates containing ammo, crafting materials and other resources will also respawn. Monsters can also drop such items when killed. These respawning sources of items can give extra resources necessary to go through the next stages of the game when dying many times or just got lost exploring.

Another safety net is “magic ammo boxes”. Sometimes the player needs to shoot the padlock to unlock the ladder. Those boxes will give two or three bullets only when the player is out of ammo. This will avoid the softlock situations or annoying backtracking to the last bonfire.

Supply crates and magic ammo box

The last situation when the players can run out of ammo is during the boss fights. Every boss was designed to have some source of ammunition. For example, the large larva boss ‘Slither’ occasionally hits the wall, causing cocoons containing ammo to fall from the ceiling.

Final thoughts

In conclusion, my goal while introducing mechanics like crafting and looting was to make the players be able to choose the way they want to play The Looter. It’s up to them how they spend the resources to fit their style. We also tried to make mechanics semi realistic and imbued in the game’s world.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1163020/The_Looter/

Original post

12 Mar 2026Developer post

The Looter Dev Update #8: The Green Nightmare

Hey, I’m Krzysiek. In The Looter I handle level design and the slightly chaotic process of stitching everything together inside the engine. Today I want to talk about how a forest grew out of nothing, and how we managed to cut our way through a giant, mutated overgrowth of ideas.

Hey, I’m Krzysiek.

In The Looter I handle level design and the slightly chaotic process of stitching everything together inside the engine. Today I want to talk about how a forest grew out of nothing, and how we managed to cut our way through a giant, mutated overgrowth of ideas.

What Is Tortura

Before The Looter even had a name, we knew we wanted to make a post-apocalyptic game. But not one set in distant Australian deserts or North American wastelands. We wanted something closer to home. Brutalist architecture. Concrete blocks. Dense forests.

The first look of Tortura in the game prototype. It was so long ago it’s almost weird the forest didn’t grow in real life

That’s how the idea of Tortura was born - an unnaturally massive forest that suddenly, inexplicably (or maybe just forgotten by those who survived), grew and swallowed fields, villages, and entire cities.

This was the vibe we were aiming for - a brutalist housing block swallowed by a post-apo forest

And with the forest came the murrain. A disease spreading through the land, sparing no one, reshaping everything it touched into a new, terrifying ecosystem. Tortura became home to those who weren’t lucky enough to escape - people now wandering mindlessly, guarding the ruins of their own lives. Once we had Tortura in our heads, the next question was simple: Why would anyone willingly go in there?

The heroes of this part of the world - Looters in their natural habitat, ready to risk their lives and roll the dice every single day

That’s how the idea of the Looters emerged - scavengers, a bit like the stalkers from the Strugatsky brothers Roadside Picnic. They venture into forbidden zones to pull out treasures: a book, a jacket, a pair of glasses. Small relics of the old world. Enough to trade for a few more days of peace.

Forest vs Civilization

When designing the levels, I kept asking myself: what would actually happen if nature suddenly reclaimed everything?

Luckily, reality gives us plenty of reference. Entropy is real. Nature reorganizes things the moment we stop looking. Places like Pripyat, the abandoned towns around Chernobyl, or even areas around Fukushima show how quickly civilization starts dissolving. Overgrown malls. Trees growing through concrete. Rust swallowing steel.

In Tortura, you mostly move through ruins. Some interiors feel almost frozen in time - like a museum exhibit titled “Days Long Forgotten.” Others have fully collapsed and turned into nests for plague-twisted creatures.

In that sense, Looters are modern archaeologists. They break into unreachable places, not to study history - but to survive off it.

Well, well, well... what do we have here?

Tortura fitness trail

Smack that wall

And Tortura itself is an ecosystem. Everything has its place. Some areas have stabilized; the forest has stopped advancing there. Others are still being consumed.

Creatures follow patterns. They walk the same paths. Even when they die, they eventually return. It’s one big cycle. The good news? Cycles can be learned.

What are you lookin’ at?

Looters can predict enemy movement, identify safe routes, and carve out enclaves - small pockets of safety where you can rest, trade, and share stories before heading back into the green nightmare.

Environment as Storytelling

One thing I’ve always loved in games is when the environment tells its own story.
Games like The Last of Us do this brilliantly - you walk into a room and immediately understand what happened there without a single line of dialogue. FromSoftware games are masters of environmental storytelling too. You don’t get long explanations - you observe, connect dots, and feel the history. I always wanted that in Looter.

Was that their family... or their next meal? Who knows. I don’t

A suitcase left open. Clothes scattered. A car stopped in the middle of the road with something still inside. A cave with traces of someone who tried to survive there. A broken gate and signs of a fight that clearly didn’t end well. If you rush through, it’s just background. If you stop for a moment, there’s a story.

When building levels, I didn’t want them to feel like tunnels with trees painted behind them. I wanted players to pause and think: this used to be an apartment block... that must have been a swimming pool... this feels like an old monastery.

And then wonder:
Was this place untouched since the catastrophe?
Is this the first time this door has opened in years?
Did someone live here - right up until the plague found them?

Poor bastard. Stuck here forever

Exploration and the Metroidvania Rhythm

From the beginning, we wanted Looter to give players a sense of exploration freedom.
We’ve always liked the structure seen in classic Resident Evil games - where you explore interconnected spaces, gather key items, unlock new paths, and sometimes return to earlier areas with new tools.

So... what was the code again?

That structure became a backbone for our level design. At the same time, Looter has strong action elements - platforming sections, combat sequences - so sometimes we intentionally break that loop and push players forward in a more linear, adrenaline-driven way.

Still, we didn’t want the “Looter” fantasy to be just a narrative excuse. That’s why levels are packed with hidden spots. Maybe you won’t notice them the first time. But when you backtrack, you might spot something new. Something that makes the same path feel different.

From Sketch to Game

When I started working on Looter, I never imagined I’d be designing levels - let alone shaping their visual identity. Right now, the game has around 250 handcrafted map segments. Probably another 250 ended up in the trash over the years. I honestly don’t even know when that happened.

One of the early scenes

…and its revamp

At the beginning, I had zero idea how to design levels. I drew some zigzags on a piece of paper, recreated them in the engine... and somehow everyone assumed that was the plan. Looking back, I think I learned mostly by making mistakes. I still rely heavily on intuition - and yes, sometimes on “borrowing” zigzag inspiration from other games.

The legendary hand-drawn zigzags

And what those zigzags turned into inside the engine

At first, I tried to make everything realistic. Buildings that made architectural sense. Real metro stations. Real banks. Turns out: reality is often boring in gameplay. So over time I shifted from realism to plausibility. The levels still look like apartment blocks or industrial zones - but now they might contain platforms or ladders that wouldn’t make perfect real-world sense. And that’s fine.

These days, my priority is simple: Is it fun to move through? I usually start with mechanics - colliders, jumps, traversal systems. I run back and forth testing distances, jump arcs, whether you can traverse the space both ways. Once that feels right, I layer visuals on top. Trees. Furniture. Colors.

First, the skeleton - the blue abyss

A few evil residents

Then some walls that have definitely seen better days

A couple of pieces of furniture and some scattered details

And done! Post-apocalypse fun for the whole family

And then comes my favorite part: the small stories.

Nothing is ever truly finished. I still tweak older levels sometimes. But I also learned something important - you can refine a level forever. At some point, it’s better to move on. Or even better... make a new game.

Closing

Tortura is full of challenges - for players and for us as developers. It can feel overwhelming at first. But if you survive the so-called “warm-up” (what Looters call a rookie’s first run through the safer outskirts before reaching an enclave), things start to open up.

Still a few more trees to cut down before this forest is finished

Our goal was always to create challenge - but also satisfaction. Satisfaction from mastering routes, defeating enemies, surviving traps, and uncovering secrets that aren’t immediately visible.
If you decide to spend your time exploring Tortura and the story of our nameless protagonist, I hope you’ll feel that satisfaction.

And maybe - just maybe - you’ll stop for a second in some ruined room... and imagine what happened there.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1163020/The_Looter/

Original post

20 Feb 2026Developer post

The Looter Dev Update #7: Strays of Tortura

Hey everyone, Bald Pixel Artist here! Since it’s #LoveYourPetDay, I wanted to share a small (but very dear to us) side quest from The Looter. Tortura is full of lost souls… and yeah, some of them have fur. We’re adding 12 collectible, animated animal NPCs, all inspired by real pe

Hey everyone, Bald Pixel Artist here!

Since it’s #LoveYourPetDay, I wanted to share a small (but very dear to us) side quest from The Looter.

Tortura is full of lost souls… and yeah, some of them have fur. We’re adding 12 collectible, animated animal NPCs, all inspired by real pets from our team and friends.

When you find one, it gets a little entry in your Journal, and a safe spot with a certain… peculiar human(?) NPC who’s been taking them in.

Here are a few you’ll meet.

Paprotek

We adopted him from a shelter about a year ago. He never gets tired, whether he’s parked on your lap or out on a walk. And for some reason, he decided that gently biting your hand is his love language.

Leon

He’s 13 years old, but you wouldn’t guess it. He went from classic apartment lazy-cat life to becoming a full-time little huntsman, spending most of his days outside near his new home in a small town. He belongs to a programmer that had a key role in the beginning of the project, and helped a ton as we got closer to the finish line.

Igła (Needle)

The one and only tactical dog herself and the inspiration behind our studio name and logo. She’s absurdly lovable and will absolutely love-tackle you if you don’t play it cool. Igła belongs to our programmer Łukasz and has basically been part of the team the whole time, keeping morale up during the long dev weeks. Also, she sheds like crazy.

And because this matters to us, we also want to honor pets who are no longer with us, but are still very much remembered.

Negroni

Named after my friend’s favorite drink. A rascal from day one (and honestly, she earned it - her start in life wasn’t easy). She was once kidnapped and taken across the country, but her owner didn’t give up and managed to bring her back home safely. She loved to play nonstop and would “hunt” your hand whenever she had the chance. She also felt most comfortable up high - rooftops, beams, trees… so that’s exactly where you’ll be able to find her in Tortura.

It’s important for us that where you find each animal matches their personality - their habits, their favorite places, their little quirks.

Which is why, for example… Paprotek will be hanging around the smelliest things imaginable.

So if you hear scratching in the brush or spot a pair of eyes in the dark… don’t ignore it. Not every lost soul in Tortura wants to hurt you - some just want to be found.

Cheers!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1163020/The_Looter/

Original post

14 Jan 2026Developer post

The Looter Dev Update #6: Designing Survival

Hello Looters! Welcome back to another devlog. This time we want to talk about survival mechanics in The Looter. My name is Walczak and I handle the programming side of the project. The first idea behind The Looter was simple: let’s make a game like Resident Evil, but in 2D. The

Hello Looters!

Welcome back to another devlog. This time we want to talk about survival mechanics in The Looter. My name is Walczak and I handle the programming side of the project. The first idea behind The Looter was simple: let’s make a game like Resident Evil, but in 2D. The main challenge was designing survival systems where the player always has just enough resources to push forward. This is our first game, and we are a small, unknown studio, so we want to make the experience approachable for everyone rather than cranking the difficulty lever too high or turning it into an extreme survival simulator.

In The Looter, resources should be available, but never infinite. Games like Resident Evil or The Last of Us do this extremely well - you usually enter a fight with just enough ammo to survive.

Early designs of shooting and death animations

CHALLENGES

We want firearms to be the main way of dealing damage, with melee weapons serving as a last resort, support option, or finishing tool. From my own gaming experience, I tend to hoard limited resources like I’m saving them for retirement. I remember playing The Final Station - a game that inspired us a lot - and using melee attacks almost all the time, barely touching my pistol, and God forbid the shotgun. We wanted to avoid this behavior, so we introduced several mechanics that actively encourage players to use firearms.

Using 360 in a different combat scenarios

GIVING THE PLAYER PROBLEMS

One of the best definitions of video games I’ve ever heard is “solving problems for fun.” In The Looter, the core problem is always limited resources. Throughout the game, there are multiple solutions available, and it’s up to the player to decide how to deal with them. Just like in real life, many problems can be solved with money - and our game is no different. Players can buy blueprints that allow them to craft ammo and quick-use items using gathered materials. This introduces meaningful choices. For example, producing handgun ammo and frag grenades requires some of the same materials, so the player must decide which item they prefer.

Old art of Looters securing the loot

Another option is upgrading either a weapon’s magazine or the quiver. Magazine upgrades greatly increase ammo capacity for one weapon, while quiver upgrades slightly improve ammo and quick-item capacity across the board.

A glimpse at the upgrade menu

AMMO CAPACITY AND STORAGE

Initially, we introduced ammo and quick-item capacity limits (frag grenades, flashbangs, etc.). Once the player reaches the maximum capacity, they can no longer pick up more ammo. This creates the uncomfortable feeling of leaving resources behind, which pushes players to spend ammo more freely. While this helped reduce hoarding, it also created new problems. When players died, they were often left with little or no ammo, and seeing resources they couldn’t pick up felt frustrating. To solve this, we introduced a storage system inspired by FromSoftware games like Bloodborne and Dark Souls. The system works like this: the player still has a maximum carry capacity, but if they pick up ammo or items while at the cap, the excess goes into a virtual storage. Stored resources automatically refill the player’s inventory when space becomes available. This does reintroduce some hoarding behavior, and during QA we observed testers with 200+ handgun ammo. This is something we’re still actively tuning.

Display of ammo count in the inventory

FOCUS

Every weapon - melee or firearm - has a powerful alternative mode. The Focus bar fills when the player defeats enemies, destroys crates, or uses Focus items. When the bar is full, the player gains a Focus point. Focus points can be spent on alternative firing modes for firearms or buffs for melee weapons. Using a firearm’s Focus mode also grants extra ammo “from thin air,” making it a deliberate way to conserve resources.

CORE WEAPONS

The foundation of The Looter is simple: enemies chase the player once they spot them, and you must take them down before they reach you. To keep combat engaging, each weapon comes with its own attachments, upgrades, and quirks.

Handgun
A reliable all-rounder that can carry you through the entire game. It offers solid damage, widely available ammo, and multiple upgrade paths. Attachments include a laser sight for extra precision and a three-round burst mode for dealing quick damage. Inspired by the USP Compact pistol that Leonardo Di Caprio uses in the Blood Diamond movie.

Shotgun
The king of close-quarters combat. At short range, it can hit multiple targets and deal tremendous damage. However, it’s ineffective at long range, making it a high-risk, high-reward weapon. Attachments improve fire rate, and the Focus mod Dragon Breath adds a burning effect to the shots, making it extremely deadly. Inspired by KS-23 Shotgun.

Rifle
A fast-firing, spray-and-pray weapon with noticeable initial recoil. This can be reduced by attaching a grip. Its Focus firing mode launches a powerful rocket-like projectile that sets enemies on fire. The rifle is inspired by Polish wz. 96 Beryl.

MELEE WEAPONS

There will be two melee weapons in the game:

Knife – A fast starter weapon with low damage that can be temporarily buffed using Focus points.
Axe – A heavier weapon focused on raw damage. Its Focus buff improves damage negation.

360° AIMING

One of the biggest design decisions when making a 2D shooter is the aiming system. We decided to allow free 360-degree aiming. This makes gameplay more dynamic and opens up a lot of design possibilities. Players can shoot padlocks to unlock ladders or knock down hidden treasures, similar to Resident Evil 4. It also allows us to build mechanics like precise weak-point hits and stuns. Other games that inspired our 360 aiming were Shadow Complex, Apotheon, The Final Station and Rochard.

Handgun aim, shoot and reload animations

FINISHERS

To make combat more engaging and encourage melee usage, we introduced a Finisher system. Most enemies have vulnerable spots, such as heads or glowing bubbles. Shooting these spots fills a stun meter. This mechanic is inspired by modern God of War titles. Once the stun bar is full, the enemy is temporarily stunned, allowing the player to perform a powerful finisher. This is also an effective way to save ammo. Players can also trigger stuns using flashbangs or environmental hazards like explosive barrels.

Unique brutal death animation

There are also unique finisher death animations for the axe. Currently, players need to unlock the ability to perform finishers, and to be honest, we’re still debating this decision. From one point of view it is nice that players will unlock the new mechanic and get a feeling of getting more powerful and progressing. The disadvantages are that finishers are really cool looking. Jaime Greisemer the legendary designer of Halo games once said that the most important for the players is the 30 second loop of the game. After seeing that most of the people know whether they want to continue playing or not. We want to implement the finishers in this 30 second loop. First things the player will do will be to shoot the enemy, get the stun (it can be scripted regardless if it was headshot or not), perform a cool finishing move and collect some loot. The 30 second rule was introduced some time ago when the game market was not as saturated as today so the battle for player engagement is even harder now. Another problem with locking finishers behind an upgrade can be a possibility that some players will never find the upgrade material thus never see one of the coolest mechanics in The Looter.

Old capture of flashbang stun gameplay

THE CAMPING PROBLEM

The Looter is a 2D platformer with 360-degree aiming, which naturally introduces camping issues. Players can exploit high ground or ceiling spots to safely attack enemies, sometimes making combat feel “cheesy”.

Old art of Looters camping

We try to minimize this through enemy placement, but sometimes it’s unavoidable - and can even feel like a reward for smart positioning. The key is making enemies react appropriately, such as retreating or moving unpredictably. Enemies that don’t respond to being shot feel strange and unpolished, so reaction is essential.

Shotgun in action

FINAL THOUGHTS

Looking back, we think we’ve landed on some solid combat and survival mechanics. This was one of our biggest problems during the game development cycle. For months - maybe even years - we were hesitant to show The Looter because we felt the combat was dry and uninteresting. Another fear was the lack of enemy variety. At the moment we achieved an interesting and in some ways unique combat and survival mechanics. We still need broader playtests, but the foundation is finally there.

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05 Dec 2025Developer post

The Looter Dev Update #5: Evolution of The Looter

Hello there, Looters! It’s been quite some time since the last devlog, but we definitely want to keep you a bit more up to date right until the launch because, well, we are finally getting there! In this one, the one doing the writing will be me - Łukasz, also known by some by th

Hello there, Looters!

It’s been quite some time since the last devlog, but we definitely want to keep you a bit more up to date right until the launch because, well, we are finally getting there!

In this one, the one doing the writing will be me - Łukasz, also known by some by the alias BaldPixelArtist. I want to do a little dive into the art of The Looter and how it evolved during this journey and what this game means to me as an artist.

ENVIRONMENT

Where should we start? Maybe here, with the general environment.

The Looter - as you might recall - is a post-apo game with a lot of platforming/shooting action, and the "post-apo" part is where I could really go hard on the lush forest reclaimed by nature, kind of like The Last of Us but sideways and with a 2D vibe.

This is the earliest iteration of the general look of the game. What I always remember is that I wanted to get that immersive pixel art look, just like in my holy grail of pixel art - Metal Slug. Highly detailed backgrounds where you can often notice limited but well-fitted parallax planes with readable interactive objects that don’t stick out like sore thumbs. Well… I see now how far I was from that. Some solid detail in small spots and muuuuch less when it came to bigger assets, and don’t even get me started on the backgrounds - RANDOM GRADIENT GO! This is when ambition met the lack of skill, to put it bluntly.

At the beginning, we worked in 480x240 native resolution, which still is pretty much a standard for some more retro looking games. Later on we went bigger, because for some reason I felt that resolution was a bit tight - of course that was a lack of experience talking, not knowing the exponential nature of pixel art resolutions. Take a look at the first tries of that level up.

Foliage definitely got a level up in terms of details, but they were still far from what I had in mind. Ground was changed into a tile set instead of ready chunks (reality check), but that gave the blocky Mario-ish vibe that I tried so hard to avoid. Using perspective on said tiles didn’t help either; what was meant to add depth just added a guide for the eyes to follow the rectangular shape.

Forest was always the main biome we wanted to go for. More specifically, it was supposed to be a kind of Soviet-era world overgrown by nature years after being destroyed. I think we maintained that idea pretty well and ended up with good results immersion and atmosphere wise. In the picture above, you can see that we got closer to what we initially planned. The world started to feel natural; layers in the background started to look more natural and added proper depth. Some assets were still unfortunately subpar to what I envisioned, so we needed to reiterate still.

This is where we are at in the current version. Textures were simplified, colors became more saturated, contrasts were improved for visual clarity, and backgrounds became more organic with fogs, lights, and foliage movement added. The ground is pretty straight most of the time still, but the way we started to layer objects, it became much less noticeable. With proper ambience sounds, the environment came to life, and it became the closest to the original vision. At this time, we are very satisfied with how it turned out - the improvements could go on forever, as always, but this is where we put the full stop.

CHARACTERS/ENEMIES/ANIMATIONS

While I consider myself an environment artist first and foremost, and that is where I put most of my workload, as the only dude who does art on our team, I had to tackle animations with no real prior experience. This is where we were at the beginning of the project:

Derpy and clunky animations aside, the designs of the main character were not too readable in the overall dark environment of our game. But the idea for monster designs was there, and we kind of grew attached to this look of the hero. For the needs we had, these animations were enough, but I knew the upgrade was coming, and it did with the resolution expansion.

In this GIF you can see the new design didn’t really change at its core, but the moment I did that white jacket with black fur, I fell in love with it, and I felt it gives our guy a nice pop and flair while keeping that ‘kinda normal dude in a post-apo world’.

While the design was set in stone, the animations themselves have been changed a few times during the development - the example shown in the GIF as well. The main principle I had when working with characters was efficiency. There was no other way but to make some compromises; the animations are not as fluid as in some newer titles - those take absurd amounts of time and were impossible for me to implement considering the workload of the environment art. But I did try to make them as good as possible at the time, as fast as possible, and while some animations might yet get some upgrades, I am mostly content with what I achieved when it comes to both the main character and the monsters.

Some of you may notice that most NPCs, other than talking and some looping animations like a cook slicing something or a butcher butchering larvae, are not animated. Most of the reasons were stated above already, but there was more reason - the more important a character is, the more animations he has, basically. This allowed us to cut time spent on character art but also makes it easier for the player to recognize important people and ones he can and, often, should interact with.

What I believe is that not everything needs to move to make the scene alive - properly used sounds, barks, and even placement of characters may bring life to the scene without unnecessary workload.

UI

Alright, we are close to finishing, and I thought it was fitting to leave the UI for last because, well, it mirrors how I approached it in the game art itself - I kinda dreaded getting down to it, never having been a fan of that kind of work, and I think, weirdly, this piece of design brought the most conflicts in our team for some reason. At the beginning it was pretty aimless, had some basic functionality, but the core mechanics weren’t there and wouldn’t be for quite a long time, so we slapped on some bare minimums and called it a day for now.

As the game progressed visually, we tried to do the same with the UI, as you can see in the screenshot below. One side of the team was pushing the minimalistic approach, with inspirations coming from big titles like Resident Evil. I was never really much of a fan of that style in our case and wanted to go full classic, with pixel art everything (well, other than font) - detailed icons, ornaments, backgrounds, and character art. But considering how much other stuff there was to do, it would just be postponed without end.

But! I think it was October last year when most of the necessary art was finally done and I could tackle my next challenge. So the main problem was the icons I made were too big, kind of. But the thing was… I mostly made all of them already (for previous UI iterations), so I had to brainstorm a lot about how to fit everything I wanted per screen and keep it tidy. Well, once I managed to develop some good looking mockups, I managed to finally persuade the minimalistic side of the studio to my pixel ways.

In the end I had to resize some of the icons, but not many, mostly the ones on the right side of the character art - the accessories. In different places we used clipping masks to keep things tight but still readable.

We crunched a bit with implementing all the elements, and after around 2 months of off and on UI work, we finally ended up with the look you can see below. It was a pretty big milestone and a powerful gust of wind into our sails, to be honest. Seeing a coherent and tidy look really helped with focusing on different aspects of the game that we had left to do and polish.

So, we are approaching the end of my long babble. In the beginning I said that I wanted to mention what the project means to me as an artist. To put it simply, a lot. A crazy lot. Before I started the project, I was meandering and looking for a place in the world, picking up studies at the uni I never had a chance to finish, feeling very lost. Art was kind of there, somewhere in the background, but I’ve never really taken it seriously. When I started making art for The Looter, that pixel art spark that lit up when I was 11 came up, and I could never stop pixeling since. It was a gruesome journey at times with an insane amount of work piling up, tensions in the studio, and the feeling of wanting to throw it all away. But we kept going and pushed through. Now we are coming close to the finish line. During almost a decade of relentless pixel pushing, I’ve acquired skills I would never have if it weren't for The Looter. That little guy in the white jacket gave me a career, for which I can never be grateful enough.

If you managed to get through to the end, thank you so much!

Cheers!

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28 Aug 2025Developer post

The Looter at PAX West 2025

Hey everyone! Exciting stuff! The Looter is heading to PAX West this year, and we're bringing a new game build with us. We've spent the last few months working hard to polish the game, and we're excited to show off all the progress we've made with a brand-new demo. We're super ex

26 Feb 2024Developer post

The Looter is a part of 2D Platformer Vibes!

We’re excited to share that The Looter is a part of 2D Platformer Vibes online event hosted by Retrovibe ! The event is held from February 26 to March 4 and it gathers an amazing roster of 2D platformer titles developed by talented teams from various parts of the world. Those ind

30 Sep 2023Developer post

Realms Deep 2023 - New Gameplay Trailer is here!

Survivors! The brand-new gameplay trailer for The Looter is here! See the new desolate corners of the post-apocalyptic planet of Tortura and struggle with deadly creatures that are always dangerously close! Watch the trailer: Wishlist the game on Steam: Connect with us on our off

12 May 2022Developer post

Exploring the Monastery - The Looter Dev Update #5

Hey everyone! It’s been a while, so we thought we’d check-in and show you some of the stuff we’ve been working on recently. First up is the Monastery level in which you’ll journey through dark and spooky corridors, halls, and dungeons. In the previous Dev Update, we’ve introduced

10 Mar 2022Developer post

The Looter - Live Dev of a Post-Apocalyptic Action-Adventure Game

Join Tactical Dogs Team on Tuesday, 15 March, at 10 AM PST / 1 PM EST / 6 PM GMT / 7 PM CET to see them work on The Looter and share their design approach when it comes to making a challenging post-apocalyptic action-adventure game. The live stream will be available on Twitch , Y

24 Feb 2022Developer post

The Looter Dev Update #4: New enemies, tweaks, and more!

Hey everyone! We’re coming to you with another Dev Update. This one will be quick and short, but we still wanted to check-in, as it has become our monthly tradition. First of all, check out some then and now comparisons of how our game changed during the development. At a first g

11 Feb 2022Developer post

The Looter - Live Dev of a Post-Apocalyptic Action-Adventure Game

Join Tactical Dogs Team on Tuesday, 15 February, at 10 AM PST / 1 PM EST / 6 PM GMT / 7 PM CET to see them work on The Looter and share their design approach when it comes to making a challenging post-apocalyptic action-adventure game. The live stream will be available on Twitch

20 Jan 2022Developer post

The Looter Dev Update #3 with some new faces

Hey everyone! It’s a brand new year, so it’s time for a dev update about The Looter . We’ve spent last month mainly polishing and testing things we had ready before, so this update will be a tad shorter. Still, we want to show you some new cool things we’ve been working on. First

14 Dec 2021Developer post

The Looter Dev Update #2 - Under the desert sun

Hey everyone! The last couple of weeks we’ve spent mostly on designing and building the desert, another big location you’ll explore in The Looter . We want this setting to look unique and pose new challenges to the players . We now have the whole geometry of this location ready a

23 Nov 2021Developer post

The Looter Dev Update #1 - Big Bad Wolf and new guns

Hey everyone! Welcome to our first (of many, we hope) Dev Update on The Looter . We’ve been working hard on the down-low for quite a while now, so today we want to show you some of the new features, enemies, and locations. Let’s start with brand new items and weapons. The Looter

Hey everyone!

Welcome to our first (of many, we hope) Dev Update on The Looter. We’ve been working hard on the down-low for quite a while now, so today we want to show you some of the new features, enemies, and locations.

Let’s start with brand new items and weapons.

The Looter is full of large chasms and obstacles that block your way. In order to reach the highest platforms and cross dangerous ravines, you’re gonna need something special, and we’ve got you covered. The Grappler will allow you to access new areas, previously impossible to reach. It’s a true Batman-esque addition.

Our hero's arsenal is constantly growing. A shotgun is a brand new weapon. It shoots 5 pellets that can pierce opponents and crates but has a limited range and long reload time. You’ll need to approach the enemies with caution, or you might find yourself in quite a bit of trouble.

The Grappler and Shotgun will come in handy during your adventures. Especially because of the fact that new enemies are coming to The Looter. Today we want to show you a brand new monster. It's current codename is Nupagadi.

You might call this one a true alpha as it’s basically a wolf on turbo steroids - it's faster, stronger, much sturdier, and certainly more ravenous than other of its kind.

Nupagadi is not the only new enemy that we’ve added to the game. The home of all insects and dragonflies - The Hive is the boss of the Towers level. To destroy the Hive you need to kill the constantly spawning dragonflies and levitating orbs, and then exploit its weaknesses. Looks grotesque, doesn’t it? Yuck!

Now, let’s take a look at some of the areas coming to The Looter.

First up, the Forest Settlement.

Over the last few months, we’ve been working on the last stages of Tortura. Unlike previous areas, this one is much darker and more dangerous. It will be the final test of your skills before leaving the forest and heading out into the unknown.

And the unknown will now become a little bit more known…

After a long journey through the woods, we’re finally leaving this dark and dangerous pile of trees to enter an even more dangerous Desert. This location will be much different than the forest which was full of life, trees, and bushes. In the coming months, we’ll be focusing on building this new sandy landscape.

That’s all for this Dev Update. Let us know what you think about new features on the Steam forum, or our Retrovibe Discord.

Remember to follow The Looter here on Steam, wishlist the game and tell your friends.

See you next time!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1163020/The_Looter/

Original post

Updates & announcements

Behind the scenes: Progress Update

Help Us Shape the Game

Enemy Design Philosophy

Visual Design + Inspirations

Gameplay Role

Biggest Design Challenges

Three Enemy Examples

Bosses / Stronger Encounters

Why crafting?

Benefits of crafting system

Realism of Crafting

Key items crafting

Looting as mechanic and lore element

Uses of the Loot

Improvisation

Game flow mechanics

Final thoughts

What Is Tortura

Forest vs Civilization

Environment as Storytelling

Exploration and the Metroidvania Rhythm

From Sketch to Game

Closing

Paprotek

Leon

Igła (Needle)

Negroni

CHALLENGES

GIVING THE PLAYER PROBLEMS

AMMO CAPACITY AND STORAGE

FOCUS

CORE WEAPONS

MELEE WEAPONS

360° AIMING

FINISHERS

THE CAMPING PROBLEM

FINAL THOUGHTS

ENVIRONMENT

CHARACTERS/ENEMIES/ANIMATIONS

UI

You can enter the event here:

2D PLATFORMER VIBES IN A NUTSHELL

Watch the trailer:

Wishlist the game on Steam:

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