u/Mopicek00

Ahoj, jsme české indie studio ECHOFALL GAMES a děláme DEEPWARD, rychlou hororovou FPS roguelite zasazenou do alternativních 20. let minulého století. Právě jsme vydali demo na Steamu, tak jsme sem chtěli dát trailer a trochu hru představit.

Na každý pokus si vyberete tři postavy a během hraní mezi nimi okamžitě přepínáte. Každá má vlastní zdraví, staminu, rychlost pohybu, zbraň a speciální schopnost. Takže když jde v boji všechno do háje, neměníte jen pušku, ale rovnou člověka, za kterýho hrajete.

Příběh se dozvídáte postupně z deníků a rozhovorů mezi členy expedice. Někteří vám neřeknou všechno a celý to začne dávat smysl až na konci hry. Do toho se vám zhoršuje příčetnost, která zkresluje, co vidíte, a nutí vás pořád postupovat dopředu.

Původně jsme hru dělali jako pixel art, od té doby se dost změnila. Plná verze je pořád ve vývoji. Zúčastníme se taky letošního Czech & Slovak Games Week 2026.

Radost nám udělalo taky preview DEEPWARD ve SCORE 390. Je fajn vidět naši hru i v papírovým herním časopise.

Gameplay z dema na YouTube

DEEPWARD na Steamu, kde si můžete stáhnout demo

Když si zahrajete, napište, jak vám to sedlo. Komentáře čteme a připomínky nám dost pomáhají. Hra je kompletně v Češtině.

I used to make Doom maps as a kid on a 386. The editor fit on one floppy and I probably spent way too many hours messing around with it. What editor did you guys use back then? Anyone else spend more time making maps than actually playing Doom?

We reworked Bruno's minigun in DEEPWARD.

Previously, the barrels had to spin up before the weapon could fire at all, which made it feel less responsive.

Now, the fire rate scales with barrel rotation speed. Tap the trigger for slower, precise shots, or hold it down to spin up the barrels and reach a much higher rate of fire.

The goal was to keep the heavy feel of a rotary weapon while making it respond immediately when the player pulls the trigger.

What do you think of the change?

EDIT: Just to clarify, since there seems to be some confusion around the word “minigun”: DEEPWARD is set in the 1920s, and Bruno’s weapon is a fictional Gatling-style rotary gun inspired by older Gatling guns, not a modern M134 Minigun.

That’s why we’re not trying to replicate the behavior people might expect from a modern minigun. The weapon can fire as soon as the mechanism starts turning, while its rate of fire increases as the barrels speed up. This also fits DEEPWARD’s fast-paced gameplay, while still keeping the feel of a heavy rotary gun.

Hi everyone,

We are looking for players to test DEEPWARD, a fast-paced horror FPS roguelite set beneath a 1920s manor.

As you progress through the current Playtest build, additional heroes and the hero-switching system are introduced gradually. You can eventually build a squad of three heroes from a roster of six and switch between them instantly during combat.

CURRENT PLAYTEST CONTENT

- The first three levels of the manor

- Six playable heroes

- Heroes and gameplay mechanics are introduced gradually as you progress

- Eventually build a squad of three heroes from a roster of six

- Instant hero switching during combat

- Active abilities for Vireth and Tony

WHAT WE WOULD LIKE TO TEST

- Is switching between heroes clear and easy to understand?

- Do the weapons and enemy hits feel powerful and readable?

- Is the combat visually confusing at any point?

- Are the controls and onboarding understandable?

- Did you encounter stuttering, crashes or loading problems?

- At what point did you feel bored, lost or want to stop playing?

- Did you understand how and when to use Vireth's and Tony's active abilities?

PLATFORM

Windows PC / Steam

ESTIMATED PLAYTIME

Approximately 30 to 60 minutes for the current build.

ACCESS

The Playtest is free. Request access through the DEEPWARD Steam page. Players are being admitted in waves as we expand the test.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4709270/DEEPWARD/

FEEDBACK

You can leave feedback in the Reddit comments, use the feedback button inside the game, or post in the DEEPWARD Steam Community discussions.

This is a very early beta build, so honest criticism is much more useful to us than praise. Even feedback from a short first session is helpful.

Thank you for testing DEEPWARD.

The floor in this part of DEEPWARD was bothering us because it looked almost completely flat in game.

We gave the stones more height, made them less even and added some rubble around the edges. The lighting also needed a small adjustment so the new shapes would actually be visible.

It is still WIP, but I think the corridor already feels a lot less clean and more like an old dungeon. What do you think? Did we improve it or is there too much detail now?

These portraits were hand-drawn by our artist Ales Bohm. The video shows how each character evolved through several iterations before reaching their final in-game version. We wanted every character to feel believable in the 1920s setting while still fitting DEEPWARD’s darker, gothic horror tone.

Hi everyone,

On Wednesday at 4:00 PM CEST, we launched the Steam page for our game DEEPWARD at the exact same time IGN revealed it.

As of writing, just under 74 hours later, the brand-new Steam page is approaching 2,000 wishlists.

We obviously cannot claim that every wishlist came directly from IGN. Steam discovery, organic sharing, other coverage, and third-party trailer uploads have also contributed. However, the IGN reveal was clearly the event that sparked the initial momentum.

Here is exactly how we prepared and pitched it.

1. We edited the trailer for attention, not just information

We wanted the announcement trailer to be short, entertaining, and tightly paced.

We tried to time practically every cut, character animation, impact, sound effect, gunshot, or other visible change to a beat in the music. The goal was to avoid empty moments and keep the viewer engaged throughout the entire trailer.

There was one unintended disadvantage: because the editing follows the music so closely, some viewers assumed that DEEPWARD was a rhythm game.

It is not a rhythm game, but the trailer is entertaining and seems to hold people's attention, so we still consider that trade-off worthwhile.

2. We kept the email short and made everything easy to access

We did not send IGN a huge press release.

Our email was short and included:

- A private YouTube link to the trailer

- A downloadable 4K ProRes 422 version on Dropbox

- An H.264 fallback version

- Two lightweight gameplay GIFs, roughly 3 MB combined

- A short explanation of the game's main mechanic

- A request for an exclusive reveal

- Information that the Steam page was ready, but not yet public

The two GIFs were especially important because they allowed the editor to understand our main gameplay hook without first watching or downloading a large file.

3. We led with one clear and unusual mechanic

DEEPWARD is a fast-paced horror FPS roguelite set in the 1920s.

At the beginning of a run, the player chooses three heroes from a roster of six. Each hero has different weapons, abilities, and playstyles, and the player can switch between the three heroes instantly during combat.

The idea is to use the right hero for the current situation while trying to keep the entire squad alive. If a hero dies, that death is permanent.

We made this real-time hero-switching mechanic the central part of our pitch and showed it in both of the GIFs.

Based on the reactions so far, this is also the feature players seem to find most interesting.

4. IGN replied on Monday and revealed the game on Wednesday

On Monday, IGN replied that the game looked great and that they would be happy to reveal it that Wednesday.

At 4:00 PM CEST on Wednesday:

- IGN published an article about DEEPWARD

- The trailer appeared on IGN's main YouTube channel

- It was also published on the GameTrailers channel

- We made the Steam page public at the same time

Before the reveal, the Steam page had never been publicly available, so it started with zero wishlists.

During the agreed exclusivity period, we did not publish or promote the trailer ourselves.

5. One unexpected complication during the exclusivity window

A few hours after the IGN reveal, a third-party trailer channel found the trailer on our newly public Steam page and reuploaded it to YouTube without contacting us.

This happened while the IGN exclusivity window was technically still active.

We only noticed it later. Fortunately, nothing appeared to come of it, but it taught us something important:

Once your Steam page is public, you cannot completely control whether third-party channels copy and reupload the trailer.

The result so far

In just under 74 hours, the Steam page has reached almost 2,000 wishlists.

It is still too early for us to provide a reliable breakdown of how many came directly from IGN, Steam's internal recommendations, other websites, YouTube reuploads, or social media.

What we can say is:

- The Steam page and IGN reveal went live at exactly the same time

- IGN published an article, and the trailer appeared on two major YouTube channels

- The hero-switching mechanic received a strong positive response

- Other websites and channels started finding and covering the game organically

- The initial momentum has been much stronger than we expected

Some context about our team

ECHOFALL GAMES is a small and newly formed indie studio, but this is not our team’s first game.

The most experienced members of our team have been working in game development for more than 20 years. They gained much of that experience while working at other well-known game studios before we joined forces and founded ECHOFALL GAMES.

We are sharing this because we do not want to present the result as a magic formula or as a first-time developer success story.

Experience probably helped us prepare the trailer, Steam page, media files, and pitch, but we are still a small team building a new studio and audience from the beginning.

What we are doing next

Now that the exclusive window is over, we are trying to build on the initial coverage by contacting additional press outlets, YouTubers, streamers, TikTok creators, and channels focused on horror, FPS, roguelites, and indie games.

We are also preparing a public beta through Steam Playtest, which should become available within the next few days.

Our main lessons so far are:

- Have the Steam page completely ready, but launch it together with the reveal

- Keep the initial email short

- Lead with one clear gameplay hook

- Include small GIFs that can be understood immediately

- Provide both a high-quality master and a convenient H.264 fallback

- Make the trailer entertaining enough to hold attention

- Do not assume you can control third-party reuploads after the Steam page becomes public

We are still at the beginning, so this is an early report rather than a complete postmortem.

For developers who have experienced a strong announcement spike: what worked best for maintaining the momentum after the first 72 hours — more press, creators, Reddit clips, a Steam Playtest, or something else?

Links for context:

IGN article:

https://www.ign.com/articles/deepward-a-brutal-fps-roguelite-set-in-the-1920s-announced

IGN trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJ7P1-3XjL4

Hi,

we just published the first public beta of DEEPWARD on itch.io:

https://echofall-games.itch.io/deepward

DEEPWARD is a fast-paced horror FPS roguelite where you choose 3 heroes from a roster of six, switch between them during combat, and descend beneath a cursed 1920s estate.

This is an early beta build, not the final demo. It may contain bugs, rough balance, unfinished features, and performance issues. The build is available for a limited time while we collect feedback for the next beta.

We are mainly looking for feedback on:

- what felt strongest

- what felt confusing, boring, or frustrating

- bugs, crashes, or performance issues

- anything you think should be improved before the next beta

The itch page includes the download and feedback form.

Thanks for checking it out.