First look · In development
A perfect town above. Your realm below.
In 1866 the village of Gladmoor threw its chemist and sin-eater, Sterling Vane, down the town well. Every ten years he climbs back out under the suburb built over it, to pay a debt in souls. You are the Master. Dig, build and rule below; the town above knows the story.
- PC
- In development
Real PC capture, Nov 1. AI-assisted 3D models; animation, levels, systems and camera are ours.
01 / 03
The town above
A pleasant suburb built over the old village goes about its routines through day, night and weather, paced by a storyteller, not a script. It watches, counts heads, and if it finds him it performs the Rite again.
02 / 03
He walks his own dungeon
The Master acts in person and rules from the Crossbeam, the well's oak frame, now his seat. A handful of grotesque gnomes, townspeople he took long ago, dig, haul, sleep in their own beds and eat rats.
03 / 03
Opening Night is the Gate
Wear the neighbors down until an adult walks down to him at night through their own cellar; later your creatures come up through hidden portals. You win a level when you open the Gate to Vrykolakas's deep and pay over the souls you hold.
Screens
Eight frames from the build
BelowThe Seat: Vane on the Crossbeam BelowThe Master, close BelowGnomes round the Seat BelowFloor two, cut away AboveGladmoor Rise by day AboveThe gardens over the Below AboveGladmoor at night BelowThe Gate, open
Real captures from the current work-in-progress PC build, HUD hidden. AI-assisted: the 3D models come from AI image-to-3D tools working from the studio's own concepts; the Master's animation, the levels, systems, camera and interface are the studio's own work.
Where it stands
In development
PC first
Grim Designs is in development at Iron Buffalo Studios: a dark dungeon-builder strategy game where a perfect town sits over your realm. Each level is one Return, ten years after the last, and all of them are open from the start. Everything here is from a work-in-progress PC build. No date, no store page yet; follow the build on Discord or the newsletter.
- PC
- In development
Get notified
Hear it from us first.
One mail when there is something to show: a trailer, a playtest, a store page.
Community
Follow the build
Discord
Dev notes, captures and the odd poll in the Grim Designs channels of the studio Discord.
Join the Discord