Beats of Betrayal

About this game

Stay on beat to attack!

Beats of Betrayal combines rhythm games with action roguelike dungeon exploration. You can only attack when the soundtrack's kick and snare drums are playing. You can choose from several characters for your adventure, each with a unique skill set. Collect more skills as you progress to stay powerful enough to successfully complete boss encounters and stages. Try different builds to get as far as you can, but be careful with your choices as your skills will stay with you throughout your run.

Key Features

• Innovative Rhythm Based Combat:
  In this game, you have to match the kick drum and snare drum on the soundtrack to launch an attack. This means you have to stay focused and maintain a steady rhythm, even in stressful situations.
  
• Top-Down Bullet-Hell Roguelike:
  The enemies in this game will try to end your run as quickly as possible. Dodge attacks and quickly defeat your enemies to get through as many stages as possible.
  
• Multiple Characters with Unique Abilities:
  Each playable character has unique stats, a unique special ability and a unique set of skills. Try out different characters and strategies to see which one suits you best.
  
• Skill System with Decking Mechanics:
  Depending on the character you choose, you will have a certain deck of skills available to you during your run. It is also possible to manipulate the deck between stages by swapping one of your skills for another character's.
  
• Procedural World Generation:
  All dungeons are generated from templates and random chance upon entry. This means that each time you enter a dungeon, the layout will change, making each visit a whole new experience.
  
• Striking Text-Based Graphics:
  Although the game looks like "pixels", the visuals are actually based on displaying characters (such as letters or numbers) from a font sheet on a 160 x 90 grid. So all of the assets and animations were handmade to create this unique visual effect.
  
• Exciting Selfmade Electronic Soundtrack:
  In order for the combat system to work with the soundtrack, the music has to meet certain requirements. So all the music in the game is selfmade by us to fit the game.
  
• Challenging Boss Fights:
  Everyone loves a good boss fight, so naturally our game has several! We want each one to be a unique experience, so they each have their own special attack patterns and soundtracks.

Planned Content (No Promises)

- Story-Mode with permanent upgrades and Rogue-Lite mechanics
- More Challenges for Rogue-Mode
- Permanent Upgrades
- Achievements

Motivation

We are a team of two developers and have been working on this title for three years. We love rhythm games, so we created a combat system where you play the kick and snare drums in the music to successfully attack. Fight your way through multiple stages, trying out different skill combinations and taking on challenging boss battles. Using our custom character-based engine, we were able to create a unique art style that comes to life with our completely original, self-composed soundtrack.



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Latest news

• Patch Notes·29 Apr 2026Official

  Major Update: Adventure Mode

  Dear player,we proudly present this major update, which, among other things, finally introduces the long awaited adventure mode! This is something we ourselves were looking forward to for quite some time and we are very happy with the progress. We also created a brand new trailer to go hand in hand with the update and to celebrate reaching this significant milestone:With the majority of gameplay mechanics, stages, enemies and other content being ready, we now shift our focus towards a narrative to give you motivation and a goal for going through the game's content. The previous rogue mode let you go through the stages in pursuit of a great highscore and to try out different characters and their skillsets. Through the new adventure mode you get to know who these characters are and what kind treacherous plot connects them.There is still a lot of work to be done to realize our vision for the game. Here are some plans we have for the full release version:Adding dialog choices, which alter the progression of the adventure.Completing all characters, each with a unique set of skills and a character-bound special ability.Introducing a decking mechanic, which allows you to combine skills from multiple different characters for you to try out and find strong builds.Creating more boss fights.Producing more soundtracks.Probably some balancing...As a two person dev-team we require your support to make the game known. You can wishlist on Steam, share the game with your friends, join our discord, or get the Early Access version right now and dive into an original adventure in Beats of Betrayal!AdditionsAdventure mode including first chapterTheme soundtracks for each characterRevamped tutorialImproved dialogs and speech soundsNew map display and overview dialogDash kick mechanicColor saturation settingMinor sound additionsElement chance stats displayChain pushing of objectsTitle forest tree now has lightsNew startup scene animationAdjustmentsCombined difficulty and mode choicesMinor...
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• Announcements·29 Nov 2025Official

  Adventure Mode Preparations

  We are currently in the process of preparing a big content update that paves the road towards the full release. Here is a small teaser for upcoming content!The update will contain the first chapter of our adventure mode including an improved tutorial with quicker pacing and many more improvements. Additionally it reveals the beginning to the mysterious story about 'betrayal' and 'the waves of the world'.In preparation for the adventure mode, we have been working on all kinds of things, including new soundtracks, improved dialogs, interface, and game mechanics, but also a lot of behind the scenes work.We also have two new characters with a full new set of unique skills each in the pipeline, which we are still considering to add to the upcoming update as well.However, we don't want to spoil things for you too much. Find out in the upcoming adventure mode preview update! We'll be back as soon as it is ready.See you next time!
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• Patch Notes·22 Jun 2025Official

  V20250622

  AdditionsNew icons for stage bonus screenNew walter special attack iconFactory variant for title screenTown lights on title screenFixesDash direcion fix for analog sticksPyromaniac chance is now displayed correctlyAdjustmentsCoins are now collected directly to the inventorySevere bleeding causes less extra damageCritical chance scaling improved
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• Patch Notes·9 Jun 2025Official

  Stage Five Update

  The new update is finally here! In our last post we told you about our successful test run at the Dokomi Japan-Expo, and now we release the update for everyone on Steam to enjoy. Here are all the fancy new additions we have in store for you. Factory Stage The game gets a major content upgrade with the addition of the Factory as the fifth stage. It features conveyor belts, that disturb your movement, robotic enemies with shock attacks and other dangers. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44869002/518071179e5dae5d3c6bca582c8339e001834071.gif Reaper Boss Leading the army of undead foes in the Town stage is no one else, than the mighty grim reaper – death himself. He is a powerful trickster with a variety of strange abilities. Can you evade his frantic attacks, or will he collect your soul? {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/44869002/95ba16b75364a53ca4944bad1891757ddaff72ab.gif Additions New fifth stage: the factory New town boss with soundtrack Input mapping screen and new mouse mode Stage result bonus screen with coins and stars New special attack for Walter Conjure venom skill replacing King of the Night for Walter Special notes for temple boss Effect resistance for amulets Visual effect for low energy level Stage number and level for region title splash Added more information to the status screen Added display for status effects New Enemies Eye Walker Blinky Mini Bit Hover Disc Cube Screamy Blight Burster Adjustments Less mask spawns in temple Moved drone to factory Moved brain crawler to factory Owl boss spawns less gnomes Adjust damage/health difficulty curve for five stages Adjust status effect graphic effect strength Enemies move faster when on fire Temple boss has more health points Scorchling has less health Lower chance for Scorchling Rush Health upgrades are cheaper but weaker Critical chance upgrades are more expensive and weaker Status effects do not affect projectile speeds Shocking experience des not affect bullets Explosions do not pass effects to invincible entities Weakened Mirror S...
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• Announcements·9 Jun 2025Official

  Beats of Betrayal conquers the Dokomi Japan-Expo 2025 in Düsseldorf!

  Wow... what an experience the Dokomi was!Conventions and Expos are always exhausting, and this time was no exception, but all the effort was worth it because of the awesome people we met there and the heartwarming feedback we received! So the first thing we want to say is: Thank you! Thank you to the whole Dokomi community, the interested players, the friends who just watched their buddies play, the cosplayers, and also the other game developers at the Creative Games Area. You guys are awesome!
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