A Handful of Dust is a 2d side-scrolling, metroidvania, action-adventure game with a touch of RPG systems, that is focused around combat and exploration and is heavily inspired and influenced by games like Castlevania and Salt and Sanctuary. The game is currently in active development by BVS Studio and will be available on Steam, for now you can play the demo on itch.io. I've made a trailer for the wishlist promo champaign on Steam and you may watch it HERE!
About the Demo
The demo showcases 4 full areas from the game, includes 6 bosses, represents about half of what I have in a fully playable state so far and roughly 25% of the planned content for the final game and is 2-4 hours of playtime depending on player speed and skill.
The demo is an in progress "alpha" build and should be considered as "early access". There are some bugs and additional polish and balance passes are needed, but it is in a fully playable state. The primary motivation for packaging and releasing this demo is to solicit feedback on the current state of the game that I can use as I apply additional polish to the systems and content as well as build out the remaining content for the game. So constructive feedback, thoughts and impressions are extremely welcome.
Note that the demo/game is (currently) only available in English. Basic configurations for screen size and sound volume exist, but no accessibility options are present.
Development & Progress
The game is currently in active development as hobby project and is my first attempt at designing and developing a game. The coding and design of the game is the work of a single person (me) using the FNA framework as the base technology layer. The main character is custom and mostly animated by myself, with a few outsource animations, but most of the other artwork and assets have been sourced from various other creators. The engine, tooling, systems and processes are all complete, or very nearly complete, and about 75% of the game's planned content exists in various stages of polish and iteration.
Don't forget to support independent developers playing their games! and it's always nice if you leave a comment about this game trailer I've made :)