Screenshots
Watch trailer on Steam ↗Don't Kill the Messenger
PolyB Games · Published by PolyB Games
Last updated 8 Oct 2026
Scavenge your way across the kingdom to deliver a message of impending doom to the king or die trying! Explore, loot, dodge, or even cook if you want. Choices matter and adaptation is necessary.
Action, Indie · More free games
Embark on a perilous journey as you navigate treacherous lands to deliver a crucial message. Scavenge for supplies, dodge dangers, and adapt your strategy at every turn in Don't Kill the Messenger, an indie game where your decisions shape your fate.
About this game
Don't Kill the Messenger is a bullet hell roguelike where you must traverse a kingdom and deliver a message of pending doom to the king without first dying yourself!
Hazards, traps, monsters, and more are around every corner and even the king himself may have something to hide.
Features
Procedurally generated world maps for a unique path every play-through
Procedurally generated levels for unique encounters and experiences
Over 150 Unique Gear / Consumables / Curses to discover
Dozens of unique enemies with different behaviors and attack patterns
Discoverable world lore, side quests, and playable characters
Multiple possible story endings based on player activity
The Messenger
Dodging is your primary means of survival, but scavenge for resources and use your surroundings to turn the table on those that hinder your quest.
The Kingdom
Choose your path across the kingdom to best survive and discover the secrets of the world around you. Procedural levels and randomized events make every run unique from the last.
LOOT (and Curses)
Sometimes good things happen, and sometimes bad things happen. Good things can make you feel overpowered until you dive head first into that lake on accident while bad things can feel bad until you realize that deadly magical orbs chasing you are also deadly to monsters.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: X64 architecture with SSE2 instruction set support
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260, ATI Radeon 4870 HD, or equivalent card with at least 512 MB VRAM
- DirectX: Version 10
- Storage: 250 MB available space
Recommended
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
Supported Languages
*languages with full audio support
Latest news
Community & EventsOfficial
Don't Kill the Messenger - No Time to Loot Festival
Join The Festival, Join the Fun!Don't Kill the Messenger is joining several other wonderful titles as part of the No Time To Loot Festival from Sept. 22 - Sept. 29, showcasing games about loot in all its wonderful forms and all the wonderful things that players get to do with it! We're super thankful to HumanQube Games and Sidekick Publishing for this opportunity and hope everyone enjoys the chance to find a few hidden gems that they hadn't found yet during the festival.Game Update: Dungeon Flow and Chompers!Concurrent with the start of the festival, we've updated the demo of Don't Kill the Messenger with some significant gameplay updates to improve the flow of play and expand the content that players get to see. Dungeons now operate more akin to a classic Zelda dungeon where rooms lock until all enemies are defeated and then unlock after the task is completed. We've also included a few bug fixes that players had encountered so thank you all for your support in the continued development of the game!Beyond that, there's a new enemy in this build: the Chomper Plant. It has more health, more damage, and more general snaky hissing vibes than anything you've seen in the build before so we're excited to see how players enjoy dealing with that new challenge.Read full article on Community Announcements (PolyB)AnnouncementsOfficial
Live On Kickstarter!
We've been working on Don't Kill the Messenger since January 2025 and are truly proud of the groundwork laid and the demo that we've released thus far. It hasn't been an easy journey and there were several lessons learned along the way (mostly from great feedback from players like you).With that said, the project has truly been a self-funded passion of the team and resources need to be managed for the sake of contributors being properly paid for their work. We've just launched a campaign on Kickstarter to raise funds for that very purpose and hope that we can not only bolster the resources of the project, but also provide some awesome extra value to everyone that participates in the form of truly cool backer rewards.Those Rewards Include ...A plush of the main player character (chubby cheeks and all)Sticker sheets of in-game character spritesAn exclusive poster of characters across the gameBeta access to early builds of the gamePersonalized in-game contentOther little goodiesTo be clear: Don't Kill the Messenger WILL release on Steam in the future, but without the help of this kind of external funding the team will need to slow down development for the sake of supporting themselves and their families through other means.Kickstarter Page: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2077401188/dont-kill-the-messenger-0Thank you again to everyone that has followed and/or participated in the development thus far and we hope that this is just the next step in making this game something truly special for as many people as possible.Read full article on Community Announcements (PolyB)Community & EventsOfficial
Debut Festival 2025!
We're super stoked to be included in Debut Festival 2025: a showcase of initial titles for budding developers across the world. Don't Kill the Messenger isn't the first game we've ever made, but it is our first game to come to full release on Steam in next year and we hope that all of the games included in the festival get the well deserved attention that they need to find a community they can love.We've also got another major announcement coming up in the coming week so stay tuned to hear more about the progress of the game!Read full article on Community Announcements (PolyB)AnnouncementsOfficial
Don't Kill the Messenger Demo Live NOW!
Don't Kill the Messenger has finally reached a live and playable demo on Steam! We've been showcasing the game and gathering feedback at live events, but we're ready to open that opportunity to the Steam community at large!Thank you to everyone that has participated so far and an early thanks to everyone that wants to be part of this journey with us. With further feedback and community input we want to make this demo into something truly special that serves as the foundation for a final game that brings joy to as many people as possible.Leave us a review, join the community, and stay tuned for further updates from PolyB Games!Read full article on Community Announcements (PolyB)AnnouncementsOfficial
DreamHack Updates
DreamHack Dallas 2025 was an amazing event and we were proud to be part of it through the Indie Showcase. So many people came by, tried out the game, and gave their feedback about things they loved and things they didn't. We've been rapidly working on improvements that are a direct result of the community so we just wanted to say thanks for being part of this with us!Read full article on Community Announcements (PolyB)
