Demo Released! + Q&A

Hi visitor!

I'm Meringue Rouge, and I'm the developer for the game Ecrazeus Castle. I've just released a demo version of the game that you can try out now, before Steam Next Fest!

Here's a Q&A of some questions you might be asking.

Q: When's the estimated release date?

A: I'm aiming for somewhere around April or May 2026.

Q: What's the estimated price of the game?

A: I'm targeting 4.99€ for the European region. I'm not a calculator, so I can't give you the details about regional pricing yet, but I think I'll enable whatever suggested regional pricing Steam proposes.

If there are well-known issues with the default regional pricing profile that Steam suggests for your region, please let me know in the community discussion. It's my first game on Steam, so I'm still trying to learn what's the standards on here.

Q: Where can I leave feedback about the demo?

A: Please visit

https://forms.gle/aM1Le6oSd6ob6TKa8

and leave your feedback. It might be a bit intimidating, but you could instead fill out the simplified form, which is linked inside the description of the feedback form.

You can also leave feedback on the Steam Discussions for the game, but it's a lot more easier to quantify general feedback through a form.

If you want to do bug reports, I'll be opening a pinned thread on the Steam Discussions board for that purpose, but if you encountered it before you filled in the survey, having it on there would be even more helpful.

Q: Does the game work with Proton on Steam Deck / Linux? [Question Added 31/01] A: Unfortunately, no. The game engine I used to make this game, RPG Developer Bakin, used to have the game exports unofficially work with Proton without any real issues, but an update sometime in 2025 broke that.

On the bright side, the developers of the engine are planning to release in 2026 a "Export to Unity" feature, which will be helpful for both making a Steam Deck compatible version and maybe console ports if the demand is there. Unless there's a future Proton update that fixes the issue, it is unlikely that the game will work on Steam Deck or through Proton until the Export to Unity feature gets implemented.

Q: Will the demo receive updates in the future?

A: Ideally, no. I need to work on the main game afterall, since I gotta make money... ːsteamfacepalmː

However, I'm monitoring feedback for the demo, and if there's a critical issue that needs to be solved, I'll try to update the demo, assuming I didn't start a tediously dangerous process like trying to optimize the enemies so that they don't drop frames here and there and end up breaking their AI.

Q: What's the game's scope? Is it going to be infinitely replayable?

A: The scope of the game is small, and a good chunk of it is already done, with the "private" playtest being mostly focused on the stages, castle levels, and the unique boss that the Advanced course consisted of.

The beginner course was made afterwards for the purpose of making a demo without either supplying the entire game, nor giving too little and being unable to showcase the gameplay in it's entirety. The expert course is going to start development right about now, provided there aren't severe demo bugs that need immediate attention.

On "infinitely replayable", the game varies it up every room, such as random spawn and exit points, sometimes with random events, and with the enemies that spawn, treasure chests, loot, etc. However, you should not come in expecting roguelite type progression, you can clear the game first try if you're good enough.

There are going to be unlockables and achievements, but the core focus of the game is to recreate a more arcade-like experience.

Q: What's up with the lack of slopes in the demo? Also, why doesn't the FEVER! meter drop over time (like in the Private playtest)?

A: These two had to be (temporarily, I hope) cut from the demo for performance reasons, due to the game engine having some critical "export build only" draw call leaks or update loop leaks. I learned of this pretty recently, and I focused on trying to get framerates closer to 60 FPS rather than 30 FPS. Bug reports have been sent to the engine makers and we're hoping they can issue a fix in time for the release in a few months.

Q: What are the difference between this version and the game jam version?

A: The game jam version was made in a month, and operated on a different gameplay loop, copying the Cloak & Dagger arcade game in terms of some mechanics like a time limit that's a signal for death, rather than the next stage of progression.

Additionally, the game jam version had a different setting, less weapons, was significantly worse optimized, used almost no C# scripting to assist with content creation, and had a fixed stage layout and order.

If you've only played that version, I'd love it if you tried out the Steam demo of Ecrazeus Castle! It's pretty much an entirely new game.

Q: Was this really made in an RPG Maker-like software? A: Yes, it was made in RPG Developer Bakin.