| Dead Cells | |
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| Designer(s) | Sébastien Bénard |
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| Genre(s) | Roguelike, Metroidvania |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Dead Cells is a 2018 roguelike-Metroidvania game developed by Motion Twin and Evil Empire, and published by Motion Twin. The player takes the role of an amorphous creature called the Prisoner. As the Prisoner, the player must fight their way out of a diseased island in order to slay the island's King. The player gains weapons, treasure and other tools through exploration of the procedurally-generated levels. Dead Cells features a permadeath system, causing the player to lose all items and other abilities upon dying. A currency called Cells can be collected from defeated enemies, allowing the player to purchase permanent upgrades.
Production of Dead Cells began after Motion Twin planned development for a follow-up to their previous browser game Die2Nite. The developers decided to replace the cooperative gameplay of Die2Nite with a single-player experience focused around combat and action. They took inspiration from the Engineer character class from Team Fortress 2, and remade Dead Cells into an action platform game where the player would utilize a variety of combinations of weapons and skills.
The game was released for Linux, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on August 7, 2018. A mobile port for iOS was released on August 28, 2019, and an Android port was released in 2020. A version for PlayStation 5 was added on June 29, 2023. After release, Motion Twin supported the game with several updates and expansions. The game received positive reviews from critics, who praised its combat style and level design, with specific praise being directed towards the randomized levels and weapons. By March 2021, the game had sold 5 million copies.
- ^ Gilligan, Shawn. "Dead Cells". Game Informer. Archived from the original on July 17, 2018. Retrieved October 17, 2023.
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