Runess

No knight? No problem.

Tired of waiting for a knight to rescue her, the princess walks out of her tower alone and goes down through the castle floor by floor, armed with a single spell: the enchanted bolt. Every descent is different, every room is a trial, and a guardian waits before every staircase.

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Version 0.13.0 · 18 October 2026 · Prototype in active development, updated often

The story

At the top of the castle's tallest tower, a princess waits for a knight to rescue her, just like in the fairy tales. She waits a long time. Knights set out, but none of them ever reach the top.

One morning she has had enough. She pushes the great door open and starts going down, floor by floor, with a single spell in her hand: the enchanted bolt. She'll find the knights along the way, slumped against the walls, with their promises.

Nobody is coming to save you. You'll have to do it yourself.

How it plays

A voxel action FPS with procedural floors and a roguelite heart: go down, gather gifts, fall, and start again stronger.

She saves herself

Fast first-person action. No sword, no armour: just the enchanted bolt, a little comet that charges, bounces, burns, freezes and puts to sleep, depending on the gifts you carry.

Every room is a trial

Step in, the doors slam shut and enemies rise from the smoke, wave after wave. They open again only when the last one falls. Spikes, arrow slits, bewitched mirrors: watch your step.

Gifts with a price

174 gifts to collect: they change your bolt, your stride, your ♥. Some give a lot and take something back. Choose carefully what you carry down.

One hand, one pocket

No inventory: one item in your hand, one trinket in your pocket, your ♥ and your mana. Everything else you wear, and it shows.

Every descent is new

Rooms, corridors, enemies and treasure all grow from the run's seed: every descent is a different castle, and the same seed builds the same castle again.

A castle full of secrets

Walls to knock on, golden rooms behind locked doors, doors that shouldn't be there. And a story you only uncover by going down.

Gifts

174 gifts, each with its own fairy tale and its own icon. Every gift that touches your bolt leaves its mark on it, and many show on the princess herself.

  • simple gifts
  • medium gifts
  • major gifts
174gifts
Magic Bean Queen's Scepter Glass Slippers Hare's Ears Mother Holle's Pillow Swan Feather Enchanted Spindle Piper's Flute Owl Feather Iron Casket Dragon Heart Dragon's Teeth Golden Cockerel The Golden Goose Coins from the Field of Miracles Water of Life

And further down, gifts best left unnamed.

Between descents

Every descent ends back in the tower, and the tower remembers.

Promises and keepsakes

Knights and monsters leave promises behind. Back in the tower you write them on your little board, and they become keepsakes: things for your room that help you on the next descent.

Spells

Instead of a jump you have a spell: the blink, to begin with. The other 6 are learned by following the fairy tales, going down and studying in the tower.

Tomorrow's tale

The princess's diary lies on the lectern. Write a page of tomorrow's tale, and the floor you're about to go down to will turn out the way it says.

From the castle

Screenshots from version 0.13.0, with the real interface (in Italian).

Before going down: pick one gift from the altars.
Before going down: pick one gift from the altars.
A slumped knight: he came to rescue you.
A slumped knight: he came to rescue you.
The cave troll, against a frost bolt.
The cave troll, against a frost bolt.
The Skeleton King, in the prison cells.
The Skeleton King, in the prison cells.
The shop: everything costs promises.
The shop: everything costs promises.
The crystal golem, in the wizard's tower.
The crystal golem, in the wizard's tower.
The herbalist's room, with its great cauldron.
The herbalist's room, with its great cauldron.

Changelog

  1. 0.13.013 changes

    Runess has a website, in English and Italian

  2. 0.12.114 changes

    A new keepsake, after the sixth-floor guardian

  3. 0.12.020 changes

    Trinkets

Every update, version by version →

Download Runess

Free, for Windows and Linux. It's a prototype and it keeps growing: the game tells you when a new version is out.

✦ Download on itch.ioWindows · Linux · free

Version 0.13.0, released 18 October 2026

You'll need Windows 10 or 11, or 64-bit Linux, and a graphics card that supports Vulkan or Direct3D 12. Play with mouse and keyboard or with a controller. In English and Italian.

Runess is a fairy tale, but not one for children: it deals with themes some players may find upsetting.

What's new in every version →The wiki, for those who want to know everything (in Italian, with spoilers) ↗