Echo: Defy Death

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• Announcements·19 Jan 2026Official

  We got a spot on Tiny Roguelikes on January 31st!

  Back from the winter hibernation! **We got a spot on Tiny Roguelikes event on Steam on the 30th January **so we’re hyped to record some new gameplay where I will be answering questions and giving the freshest update on the progress of the game so far! Very excited and can’t wait to hopefully do a livestream, worst case scenario **I will record myself answering questions you guys have asked so far and if you have any new questions send them my way **and I will make sure to answer as much as I can on the event! See you there and I will update again about a week before the event and on the day of the event so stay tuned!
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• Announcements·7 Oct 2025Official

  Shadow seals and gifts mechanics showcase!

  Hi guys! It’s finally time to show off some of the new mechanics we were working on in secret and this is one of our favorite ones. In our game, as you know, there are demons. Since you play as a blind ninja it’s only appropriate that you get to know the demon of Darkness as they are the one who turn the dark into an ally. Other than your regular echolocation combat, now the darkness demon can help you in 2 ways. Seals GiftsFirst is the Darkness Seals! They will shackle an enemy that you cannot see and mark them for death. If you enter the range of the seal you can do a devastating attack on the enemy, dealing high damage and possibly defeating them instantly. With the power of the Darkness demon, this attack also passes through platforms as well, making it extremely mobile. But you never know how many enemies lie in waiting for you when you arrive. The second way the darkness demon manifests their power is through gifts. These are random buffs, among which there is even healing that they leave for you in the darkness that you can pick up before they fade into the dark once more. Both of these mechanics have the same weakness though, and that is your echolocation and being revealed. The demon of Darkness can only manifest their power in the dark, if the seals or gifts are revealed by any sound they are destroyed.This really brings the darkness demon to life as an active part of your run and you can invest in your relationship with this demon and gain even more powerful seals and gifts. That’s all we will share about this mechanic for now since we want to keep some surprises for the Demo. If you want as many sneak peeks as possible, join our playtesting community on Discord and let’s have some fun chats and test out all this stuff first hand! Until the next update, peace!
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• Announcements·25 Sept 2025Official

  Building the world of Echo - The First Tower!

  Since we were really gameplay-heavy in our first year here, I believe it’s time to dive into some visuals and a bit of lore about this world we’re creating!The entire games story is set inside the Kings castle. How big is this castle? Huge…Without getting into spoiler territory, the castle got corrupted by a demonic ritual gone wrong, and now it is slowly turning into a festering and rotten reflection of itself. But! Before all that happened, it was a very nice place with a lot of military power and prestige.Inside the lowest layer of the castle reside the soldiers. The first line of defense for the castle it is decorated by the most efficient and imposing design. Inside these spaces, you will encounter:  Training grounds Artillery hangarsWeapon racks, training dummies, sleeping hammocks, etc.Imposing pillars and statues The King is in constant war with the other royals of the continent and the army never rests. New soldiers arriving to be trained as well as veterans standing guard for years to ensure the safety of the royal family.This is, of course, just the concept art. We’re keeping the reveal of how these rooms will actually look for you to experience when you play the Demo! Other than the soldiers, there are residents that you can interact with, but that will be a later post since I really want to go into detail and they deserve a post of their own. If you want to step into the first tower and face off against the soldiers, then join our playtesting group on Discord!The next post will go into detail on a new mechanic reveal btw, so see you soon!
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• Announcements·18 Sept 2025Official

  Making the Echolocation - Our journey into sound and darkness!

  Story time - From matchsticks to sound waves!When we started making Echo: Defy Death (we were still calling it Echo Ninja then btw, just so you know my naming sense is complete garbage xD) or first step was to get that echo shader looking like sound is revealing the area and not light. The First DraftThe first draft was like a cookie cutter effect type of shader. Black screen with circles spawning and revealing everything behind them. It was enough to start working on the combat and other game mechanics but we had a whole lot of issues with it. Liiiiikeeee:It was too flat.. Like the background felt like a poster rather than space…The outline was too sharp and confusingThere was literally no difference between light and this. It didn’t look like sound.So naturally, we went into a cave and learned echolocation from the bat gods (jk, we don’t have bat caves where we come from so we weren't lucky enough to try this out). Jokes aside we had some ideas on what to do to make it come to life. The Second Draft This was the upgraded version. We smoothed out the edges, then added a 3D background to add depth and the all important ‘’pulse’’ effect to really make it feel like a sound wave rather than someone lighting a match. With this we were like ‘’Yup, we’re awesome.’’ but then came the game design part. The Final DraftFor the latest version we made the echolocation travel in a straight line to ‘’mimic’’ the sense of echolocation, and we also made the sound wave bounce off surfaces. This made the echolocation feel more intentional and better for navigation while keeping the combat exciting. We added in distortion if you spam it too often and only sounds made from combat were circular since they we’re not controlled sounds. This is where we stand currently and we’re liking it very much. Next step is to smooth this distortion out, make the fading smoother as well and try and get that ‘’pulse’’ effect to be even better and look a lot more like sound. That was our journey from ma...
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• Announcements·8 Sept 2025Official

  Playtesting is starting again on our Discord!

  We're starting a new round of playtesting week on our Discord! This is the list of all the stuff that was changed from the first playtest:Archer no longer shoots arrows without cooldown when you enter the line of sight Heavy enemy attack hitbox fixEnemy detection range correctedEnemy chasing range correctedPlayer attack knockback fixedPlayer attack trail visual fixEcholocation shader visual updateBig bug fix! (too much detail to list) The first playtest gathered around 100-150 players, now we are expanding the playtesting team again! Join our Discord now so you don’t miss out on the fun!Growing this community is some of the most fun we've had while developing and we would love to hear your thoughts on our game and have you help us shape it into something truly amazing!Let's see if you can beat the boss and master blind fighting!
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