Blood Dungeon is the new game from Nidhogg and Wheel World studio Messhof, and it looks like a silly platforming mess with MS Paint-style graphics, twitchy mechanics and, of course, giant flying worms. These are clearly all positive descriptors.
Blood Dungeon is a 2D hand-animated, auto-shooting platformer that features six arenas, nine unique playable characters, over 100 weapons, and over 100 enemy types. The majority of these features are unlocked as you progress through the maps avoiding traps, collecting resources, and kiting enemies to strategic locations. Each stage has plenty of platforms, of course, but also nets, ladders, chains, and water areas to keep things interesting while hordes of enemies stalk you.
Blood Dungeon is set to release on PC and consoles in late summer this year.
In the game’s trailer, as part of the Day of the Devs 2026 summer showcase, Messhof co-founder Mark Essen clarified that Blood Dungeon is not a Metroidvania because you don’t improve your abilities as you go. He described it as something like Vampire Survivors mixed with Splendorsaying, “It’s like those other survivor games that you’ve probably played, where you kite enemies and they kind of follow you in a big mass. But in this game, you’re also in a maze. A maze with gravity. It’s really a routing game.”
The game’s villains include a giant Medusa head, a panpipe-playing faun, creepy ghosts, wriggling insects, all sorts of animals, and a big old worm. The main playable character is called Gun Man and he sort of looks like a baby in a onesie (drawn by a middle schooler in the computer lab in 1997), but additional heroes include a hooded skeleton, a naked buff dude, a big buzzing bug, and other cool cats. Note that there are no actual feline characters we can see in the game’s trailer, but with over 100 enemies there could be one or two in the mix.
Messhof was founded in 2013 by Essen and producer Kristy Norindr, in Venice, California. Nidhogg And Nidhogg II are indie classics from the 2010s, featuring a stylish but silly mix of fencing and tug-of-war mechanics, as well as a bit of archery in the sequel. Both games also feature a giant mythological worm that arrives at the end of each match to devour the winner. Looks like war isn’t the only thing that never changes.
