Blasphemous Meets Hollow Knight, in Slavic Myth
You play Koschei the Deathless, the villain of the fairy tales. The tales lied. A dark 2.5D metroidvania: an interconnected world, brutal and readable sword combat, and a fallen Tsar taking his kingdom back shard by shard.
Explore the Mini-Kingdom
An interconnected map; you always see places you can't reach yet.
Read, Dodge, Parry, Strike
Heavy, precise blows; finishers on a staggered enemy.
Harvest Souls
Every kill gives souls; die and you drop them where you fell.
Rest at the Navfire
Spend souls in rituals at a cold funeral pyre; the dead rise again.
Take Back a Shard of the Needle
Seven shards return his power and open the paths that were locked; each mini-kingdom falls with its ruler.
He Should Have
Stayed Dead
Koschei was the Dark Tsar, ruler of Nav, the kingdom of the dead, and keeper of its border with the living. His death was hidden in a blade called the Needle. A bogatyr shattered it into seven shards and scattered them; Koschei fell, and was buried and forgotten. For a hundred years the border stood unguarded: the dead walk, the sun is gone, and creatures of legend (Solovei the Robber, the Prince of the Alkonosts, the giant Svyatogor, the Leshy) have carved his kingdom into mini-kingdoms of their own. His enchanted raven brings back one shard. He wakes in a crypt, in rotted rags, an old rusted sword at his side.
Weight of Every Blow
Brutal, readable combat: mistakes are punished, it never feels slow.
Reclaim What Was Taken
Seven shards, one mini-kingdom at a time, each taken from a creature of legend.
Grow From a Weakened King
Rags, then armour, then the crown; souls spent in rituals at the Navfire.
The Team
Maxim Prots
CEO · Game Director
Came up with the 2.5D metroidvania and wrote Koschei's story. Leads game design, production and the business, builds the Unreal prototype himself, signs off every feature by playing it, and does the sound design.
Anton Filonov
Head of Design · Art Direction
18 years in art direction. The Slavic dark-fantasy vision is his: he leads the look, UI, visual world and marketing art, and produces with outside artists.
