The current gaming landscape is seemingly chock full of roguelikes and roguelites. From shooters to RPGs, many indie game developers have taken certain aspects of these cousin-like genres to present fulfilling gameplay. Drawing inspiration from the 2D stealth classic Mark of the Ninja and roguelite godfather Rogue Legacy, the small team of developers at Bullish Games have just revealed gameplay for their first endeavor, Scoundrel:
Making a good first impression, the mechanics and procedural-generation here looks like this could be hours upon hours of fun. Providing a synopsis for their game, the developers state:
Scoundrel is a 2D stealth game with rogue-lite elements. Take control of thieves and misfits and rob the ostentatious Lords of their precious wealth! But the Lords have taken precautions… Take to the shadows for the challenge is great, and many a scoundrels will get thrown in the dungeons before the Thieves Guild prevails… or gets brought to ruin.
The idea for this game stems back to 2015 when Bullish Games started with programmer/game director Filip Velichkovski, designer/writer Jovan Gjorgjiev, and pixel artist Kristina Glas. After joining forces with software engineer/entrepreneur Rick Love, development for Scoundrel started to take proper flight.
What stands out in this game is its smorgasbord of different game genres. Stealth mechanics are at the forefront with your character being able to both use and hide within the environment while navigation is set through 2D platforming. Procedural generation for your character, setting, and enemies draws from both RPG and roguelite pools to mix quite well with the stealth theme of the game. As seen in the trailer, being detected doesn’t end your run. Rather, action elements are introduced as you must frantically dodge and run through dark rooms.
Additionally, Glas’ art gives Scoundrel the impression of already being a classic indie title with impressively smooth character and enemy animations. The transition of lighting as you move through or scout rooms comes off as tightly executed and is another strong element that fits well with the suspenseful stealth of this game.
Being that the game is still in development, there is currently no release date or announcement for what platforms this will land on. The impressive gameplay teaser makes this one to keep an eye out for though.