Yo,
First things first - hop on and try out our new free rogue-lite game called Slime 3K: Demake; it's live on itch.io.
It’ll hurt, but in a good way—like a plate of spicy wings.
👆 PLAY ON ITCH.IO 👆
Beat it and unlock a unique ability for Slime 3K: Rise Against Despot
Just so there's no confusion: Slime 3K (let’s call it just Slime from here on) is our Early Access game set in the Despot's universe, and we’re officially launching version 1.0 on October 31st on Steam and consoles. It's pixel-art, rogue-lite with meta-progression, inspired by games like Vampire Survivors and auto-chess games. It's not really a retro game, but many people think that "pixel art = retro." However, Slime 3k: Demake (we'll just call it Demake) is a separate game (also in the Despot's universe) made in the Game Boy style, both when it comes to the graphics and sound. It’s a free title that's playable right now. Why should you play it, you ask.🤔 Well, apart from just having some old-school fun, here's why:
If you beat the Demake, you'll get a code for unlocking a secret ability in the main game, Slime 3K!
Now, let's talk about how Demake came to be. When Slime was about to launch in Early Access, one of our artists, Arcade Hero, sketched a Demake concept for fun. We asked the team to come up with anything that might bring new players during the 1.0 launch, and that concept is what we came up with. We posted this on X and pretty much forgot about it.
A month later, out of nowhere, our tester, neworderseo, posted a fully playable Demake build (!) based on the art from Arcade Hero. And boy, did it look awesome! We gathered as a team and discussed it, and our decision was clear - let’s ship it! The art neworderseo had originally done didn’t quite match the quality of the initial concept, and there were gameplay elements to tweak as well. Demake went through three gameplay revamps and ended up having similarities to its big brother Slime but with enough differences to stand out as a smaller, minimalist game that’s still fun on its own. It took us nearly a year to complete since it was being worked on only on Fridays – and not every Friday! The project was entirely led by two members of our small indie dev team.
Regardless of how it does upon release, we're proud of the team's work. Here's the takeaway: if neworderseo hadn’t built that prototype in their free time, we wouldn’t have ever greenlit the development of Demake during work hours – there are always more urgent tasks on the main projects. But once you’ve got something tangible and a great concept in your hands, it's hard to say no to setting aside some time for it. So, even if you don’t have a concrete plan, sometimes you just gotta start doing it – and see where it takes you. Or maybe it won’t work out, but hey, at least you tried! But enough of the inspirational stuff! Here, check out some more screenshots from the game. You may recognize some old puny friends from Despot's Game on them!
Reminder: Slime 3K: Rise Against Despot is exiting Early Access development and getting a Version 1.0 update on October 31st. If you beat the Demake that we just released, you unlock a secret ability for the game.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2348610/Slime_3K_Rise_Against_Despot/