The Shadowed Rune is a challenging, family-friendly action roguelike where you can create millions of spell combinations to overcome a tower filled with dangers, random levels, and relentless bosses. Play solo or in co-op and uncover the truth hidden behind the shadows as you wield the power of the runes.

This tale is not told by the victors…

Do you think you’re invincible? Imagine entering a forgotten tower and losing all your powers. You become trapped, and your only hope lies in ancient artifacts granted to you by a mysterious voice. Join Maia, Brishen, and Veld on a magic-filled adventure as you climb a tower without knowing what awaits at the top.

Create Your Own Spell Combinations: Millions of Possibilities

Discover a rune system based on seven elements (water, fire, wind, earth, lightning, light, and darkness). Every equipped rune creates synergies with the others, adding devastating effects to your spells. This system allows you to craft millions of spell variations, unlock hundreds of hand-crafted arcane spells, and adapt your playstyle on the fly without ever pausing the action.

By combining and swapping runes during combat, you’ll uncover new elemental effects and equip secondary spells depending on the order you place your runes. Want to heal yourself? Summon allies? Deploy support turrets? Prepare a “just-in-case” super bomb? Everything is possible. Thanks to a deep yet accessible spellcrafting system, you’ll never need to stop the action to respond to the tower’s dangers.

Accessible yet challenging action roguelike

In The Shadowed Rune, you’ll enjoy a bullet-hell / bullet-heaven combat style packed with enemies and projectiles.

• Face gigantic bosses that will test your wits. Learn their weaknesses, memorize their patterns, and crush them using elemental power.
• Randomized levels on every run — you will never explore the same tower twice.
• Interact with the environment: the same runes you use to attack are also needed to manipulate the world. Create water, activate flying platforms, grow root bridges, and play with light to unlock secret rooms and earn valuable rewards.

Play solo or local co-op

The entire adventure can be enjoyed:

• Solo, accompanied only by Neku — a cat you rescue in the tower and revive using rune magic. Neku joins your journey and allows you to store an extra rune to use whenever you need it.
• Local co-op for two players, perfect for sharing the adventure with friends or family. Choose among 3 characters (7 in the final version) with unique elemental affinities to overcome the cursed tower.
• A Family Mode is also available, softening some gameplay elements to make the adventure more accessible when playing with inexperienced players — ideal for stress-free co-op sessions.
•  Compatible with Steam Remote Play Together for online co-op.

Co-op mode requires at least one controller.

Explore the cursed tower and rebuild your camp

Travel through seven floors with distinct biomes filled with enemies, traps, and puzzles. As you climb higher, you’ll discover the secrets hidden within the tower and the ancient evil threatening not only its inhabitants but the entire world.

On your journey, you’ll find survivors captured by the tower’s forces. Once rescued, they’ll offer various services, allowing you to unlock new camp features:

• Unlock challenges and activities to complete between tower runs
• Tend the garden to improve the camp’s morale
• Obtain cosmetic items (outfits for your characters and your pet)
• Learn the characters’ backstories and befriend other survivors
• Expand the camp and discover the secrets of the ancient Tyran Empire

The camp provides only cosmetic rewards — nothing that makes your next run “easier.” Victory will always depend entirely on your skill.

Early Access content

• Three playable characters (one must be unlocked through your adventure).
• Explore three of the tower’s seven floors, ending with a final encounter that will push your abilities to the limit.
• A camp to manage: rescue captured survivors and help them thrive by rebuilding their shops and services.
• Cosmetic item system for characters and your pet.
• English and Spanish languages available from day one.
• Regular updates following a clear roadmap, shaped by community feedback.

Integrated Level Editor

Create your own challenges using the official level editor and share them with your friends. Build rooms, place enemies, create puzzles, and play your levels solo or in co-op. Link levels together (up to 100) to put your skills to the test.

The level editor is available in Beta from day one and must be unlocked during your adventure (as it is part of the story). You will be able to create levels, play them solo or in co-op, and access a wiki explaining how to share them with friends and other players while it remains in beta.

Title: The Shadowed Rune
Release: December 4, 2025 — Early Access
Developer: Javier Martínez (javifugitivo) (Spain)
Genre: Action/Adventure Roguelike
Platform: PC (Steam Early Access)
Status: Closed Beta / Demo
Players: 1–2 (local co-op)
Languages: English, Spanish
Engine: GameMaker

In a forgotten valley stands the ancient Arcane Tower, the last remnant of a fallen empire. In Falcem Coeli, once a prosperous land, magic is fading away. Veria, the most powerful sorceress of her time, suspects the source lies in that cursed, thorn-covered tower.

She lives with Maia, her adopted young apprentice, a student with great latent power. One night, Maia hears a voice in her dreams begging for help from the tower. Disobeying Veria, she seeks out Brishen, a boy her age with a shady reputation but good instincts, to guide her there.

When they reach the valley, they find the bridge leading to the tower, surrounded by thorns. Something dark stalks them. Maia crosses it… and soon, darkness engulfs her.

Maia

An orphan adopted by the sorceress Veria, she grew up as her most gifted pupil in the village of Tadd. Although her mentor forbade her from approaching the cursed tower, a voice in her dreams pushed her to disobey and enter the forest. Compassionate and determined, Maia vows to break the curse trapping the camp’s inhabitants and save them all.

Brishen

A skilled thief and adventurer, he lived off heists and odd jobs until Maia hired him to guide her to the tower. Lacking magical gifts, he gained a mysterious power upon acquiring the Dark-Wooden Bracelets, which ignited a fire within him. Now he fights to survive and escape the cursed place that changed his fate.

Veld

He is known in the camp as the Arcane Hunter. He was the first to find an arcane artifact to fight against the abominations of the tower.

However, Veld was not part of Artheus’s expedition: he entered the tower years later, driven by the firm conviction to destroy all the evil that threatened the peace of Falcem. His motives are his own secret, but at times he has spoken of a path of atonement he intended to walk alone.

• Recommended resolutions: 2K / 1920×1080 / 1280×800 / 1280×720
• Input: controller / keyboard / mouse
• Modes: single-player, local co-op
• Saves: persistent progression per run
• Indicative requirements:

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2892040/The_Shadowed_Rune/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheShadowedRune

X: https://x.com/javifugitivo

English trailer: Download

Email: hello@theshadowedrune.com
Full kit (ZIP): Download
Includes logos, key art, and screenshots

I am Javier Martínez Vidal (Javifugitivo), a Spanish independent video game developer. I have participated as a developer in more than fifty projects, including collaborations, client games, and game jams.
The music is by Félix Herrero (musician).

No Generative AI has been used to create graphics or audio in this game.