In development · alpha on itch.io

MAINFRAME ESCAPE

A twin-stick roguelite set inside a PC. You are a process trying to get out of an infected machine. The malware is not your problem. The heat is.

Play the alpha Press kit

A sector of the board: the player as a CPU die, worms closing in, the heat bar top left

What it is

Heat is the pillar

Every shot heats the machine. Run hot and you hit harder. Run out of headroom and the weapon locks out and it costs you a core. Every system in the game argues with that bar.

Builds you can see

Components stack into mods that change what your rounds do, and the round is drawn as whatever it does. You read your build off your own fire instead of off a menu.

A way out, if you want it

Kill the firewall on the socket and you can leave, banking everything you mined. Refuse, and the floors underneath are waiting. The depth record is the other half of the game.

It is a computer

Floors are circuit boards. Walls are heatsinks. Enemies are malware built out of the board’s own parts. Nothing in it is a spaceship.

Shots

The ARCADE level: a purple board dressed as a cabinet — ARCADE — every level is dressed as its own place

The PAPERCLIP firewall, an office assistant who only plays games — PAPERCLIP — a firewall you beat at its own games

A vendor sector with parts on a shelf — The shelf — credits die with the run, so spend them

A firewall sector on the board — A firewall sector

Details

PlatformWindows. More to follow.
EngineGodot 4
Made byOne person: design, code, art, sound.
StateAlpha, playable now on itch.io. Steam is the beta.
PriceFree while it is in alpha.