Nidhogg's Creator Mashes Vampire Survivors With Spelunky

Out of everything shown at Day of the Devs 2026, the one that made me sit up was Blood Dungeon. Meshoff, the two-person studio behind the Nidhogg series and last year's bike-riding adventure Wheel World, described it as "Vampire Survivors crossed with Spelunky," and the footage backs that up in the best possible way.

Blood Dungeon is a 2D auto-shooting roguelite where you're bouncing off walls, ledges, and ceilings in anti-gravity arenas while enemies flood in from every direction. It's frantic neither of its reference points quite are on their own; Vampire Survivors gives you the horde density and weapon escalation, Spelunky gives you the spatial awareness and platforming stakes, and Meshoff is apparently trying to run both at the same time. The studio says it'll feature a handful of arenas and over 100 weapons when it arrives in late summer 2026.

I love when a developer with a cult following pivots hard into something nobody expected. Meshoff built its reputation on tight, competitive duelling games, and Blood Dungeon looks like the opposite of that: chaotic, solo-focused, and built around surviving rather than outplaying someone. The Vampire Survivors formula has spawned dozens of imitators at this point, but bolting real platforming onto it instead of just letting you drift around a flat plane feels like it could actually push the genre forward. Most auto-shooter roguelites treat movement as an afterthought. This one looks like movement is the entire point.

Blood Dungeon was revealed during the Day of the Devs showcase that followed Summer Game Fest, alongside new games from the teams behind Duck Detective, N+, and Martha is Dead. No specific platforms beyond PC have been confirmed yet.