A downloadable game for Windows

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12 minutes to gaze into your soul and go as deep as you can into its landscape - Just how far will you go? What will you find?

Damocles Gaze is a radically tight roguelite top-down shooter where every run takes 12 minutes. No matter how many times you die, no matter how good or bad you are, the run ends only after the 720 seconds went out.

During the last 90 seconds you will be faced with a boss depending on how far you got. Your final score is defined by how much damage you can inflict them in these 90 last seconds. The further you got, the higher your damage multiplier.

Choose your modifiers wisely, and change strategies when death becomes insistent.

Word of warning: the last boss, the queen of cups, may be deemed "sensible content" due to its, er, genital nature. It's pretty hard to reach, you'll have to get very good at the game before you see it, but yeah, thought we'd let you know just in case it's an issue for you.

This game features:

⌛ go as far as you can into the game in only 12 minutes
🎮 tight roguelite shooter gameplay
💀 death is merely a setback
🃏 22 unique modifiers to choose wisely
🔒 meta-progress with unlockable and start-ready modifiers
🗻 5 unique zones
👹 4 unique bosses
🎲 randomized gameplay for unique runs
🎨 alternative color palettes that are easier for the eyes
🎶 soundtrack by the incredible Pentadrangle
☕ the perfect action-game for your coffee-breaks

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Controls:

This game can be played with either keyboard and mouse or with a game controller! If you'd like to play with mouse and keyboard but not in fullscreen, you may want to enable mouse lock in the game's settings to avoid clicking outside the game!

keyboard controls:

  • WASD or the arrow keys to move around
  • aim with your mouse
  • shoot with the left click
  • pick up weapons with the right click or with E

game controller controls:

  • Move around with the Left Stick
  • Aim with the Right Stick
  • Shoot with the Right Trigger or Shoulder
  • Pick-up weapons with the Left Trigger or Shoulder

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If you'd like you can come to our Discord to talk about the game, discuss strategies and/or get advice! We'd love to know what's your favorite modifier and what enemy you hate the most!

Of course it's also a very good place to get news of our next projects!

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The game doesn't run!

If you're having trouble running the game please try the following things:

  • Extract the game to a different location, like a new folder on your Desktop, and try running it from there.
  • Add the game's executable to your antivirus' whitelist. Try launching the game now.
  • Create a new text file the game's folder and name it "no_opengl.txt". You can leave it empty, it just has to exist to take effect. Try running the game now.
  • Still no luck? Please come get help on our Discord, or send us an email at trasevol.dog@gmail.com and attach the 'log.txt' file from the game's folder if it exists.

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Are you press or a content creator?

Come ask us for a key on Twitter, our DMs are open! Just make sure to tell us which game(s) you're interested in, we have a few of different ones!

Also check out our presskit where you'll find more info about us, as well as graphical assets in the downloads, useful for showing off the game or making thumbnails!

We also have a french version of the presskit! 🥐

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About PUNKCAKE

This game was made by PUNKCAKE Délicieux, a game developping duo making and releasing a new game every month through Patreon and itch.io!

Check out our Patreon subscription for advantageous offers and some more options!

PUNKCAKE Délicieux is made up of lovely humans Benjamin SouléRémy Devaux and Pentadrangle!

Find us on these platforms:
:: 👉 Patreon
:: 👉 Twitter
:: 👉 Discord
:: 👉 Itch.io
:: 👉 Steam

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1.2 patch notes:

  • Fixed random freeze on starting a level with laser enemies
  • Picking up a weapon when you have both Strength and The Hanged Man no longer kills you instantly
  • Boss now gives fewer ammo with The Devil

1.1 patch notes:

  •  Fixed the random freezes on start
  •  Reworked the level generation so that it never takes more than a few seconds
  •  Made the Damocles sword a little more eye-catching at the end of the timer
  •  Added explosions on the boss at the end of the timer
  •  Increased accuracy of the bomb launcher
  •  Faster ammo reload with the High Priestress
  •  Slowed down the enemy cards sequence a little
  •  Added 2 "night" palettes with much lower contrast
  •  Added the PUNKCAKE palette
  •  On gamepads, the shoulder buttons can now be used as alternative to the triggers

Purchase

Get this game and 16 more for $50.00 USD
View bundle
Buy Now
On Sale!
30% Off
$6.00 $4.20 USD or more

In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $4.20 USD. Your purchase comes with a Steam key. You will get access to the following files:

damocles_gaze_windows.zip 41 MB

Development log

Comments

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(+1)

wow this looks rad

(+5)

Have you ever considered developing for the Playdate console? These graphics would look beautiful on one.

(+1)

what engine or language  you're using?

(+1)

Sugar

(-16)

This is just a bad Nuclear Throne. The weapons are copy pasted. Why this game

(+1)

Continuing to enjoy the game, thanks PunkCake! I was playing v1.2 this morning, and encountered a weird bug. I paused the game with around 100 seconds remaining. I had either just died and not respawned yet, or had just respawned. The timer continued to count down. When I unpaused the game, the timer was down to 60 seconds, and the boss spawned. I will update this comment if I am able to recreate it! I am on windows 10.

(+1)(-2)

Sooo minit + nuclear throne 

(+3)

PUNKCAKE have quickly made a name for themselves for reinventing the shooter genre and they've done it again. This one's a roguelite where you get stronger by unlocking new cards. The tricky part: The cards only unlock through gameplay, but they also affect your current game. And while every card may give you some powerful bonus, they also come with an equally powerful penalty. To succeed, you need to find synergy between the cards so that the penalties actually make you more powerful. And of course there's always more than meets the eye with any PUNKCAKE game. Dig deep! PS: How cool is the 1-bit pixel art!

First run after downloading v1.1, running windowed mode on win10. Stopped responding immediately after loading 1/3. I extracted 1.1 into the 1.0 folder and replaced the duplicate files, not sure if that has any impact :(

Thanks for letting us know, we're working on a fix. If you restart the game does the freeze happen again?

Extracting the patched files into the old folder shouldn't be an issue at all.

Nope, no problems on the seconds attempt :)

(+2)

I want to phrase this like a steam review but to balance it up I will first say PUNKCAKE you're so cool! Okay, now..

As a long time fan of Nuclear Throne and recently Voidigo, this is my third game in the genre that get's it right. I love the unique aesthetic and meta mechanics of the game. Music is really good as well. I'm hooked, would recomend!

(2 edits) (+2)(-3)

I love Roguelites/Roguelikes and also Punkcake, but...
wish I could buy it :(

Deleted 2 years ago
(+1)

Guessing you cant pay in $?

(+1)

nope