Bathoryn must battle his way through a doomed land packed with gruesome pixel art foes before ascending (or sometimes descending) each tower, defeating puzzles, traps and monsters alike. At the heart of each keep, he must confront a mighty overlord. Defeat it and Bathoryn’s quest continues. Fail, and you’ll die gruesomely - mauled by werewolves, disintegrated by floating monstrosities, squashed by great weights or torn apart by hidden blades.

And you will fail...

Wolf Brew Games is currently running a kickstarter campaign, having already reached its $12,000 goal, and with a little over 2 days to go there are still several stretch goals in play.

Locations:

• The Blood Tower was one of the first to fall. Dark knights and other blood hungry monsters roam the sanguine ruins of this once-noble keep.
• The Wolfwoods. Where the ancient Great Wolves of old are said to be buried. But how quietly do their corpses lie?
• The Old Town Sewers. Constructed on a palatial scale and filled with man's detritus, these tunnels now hold much more than was planned...

The game is split up into seven areas, each of which has two distinct and very different sections. The first (horizontal) section is your progression towards the tower and has larger focus on your combat skills, with many interesting and satisfying ways to die... If you complete this part and defeat that section's mini-boss, then you can begin to ascend the Tower. These Towers have a larger emphasis on platforming and timing with puzzles and a whole range of wonderfully creative (and deadly) traps. If you reach the the top of tower, your reward is to meet the area's overlord....

Reminiscent of classics like Altered Beast, Shadow of The Beast, and Ghosts 'n Goblins, the difficulty of the combat and platforming can best be described as... brutal. Save points help but they're rare. So it's down to you and your ability with a sword.

There are 5 different attacks available, all with varying degrees of power and each with its own specific use. 

• The basic combo with Decap finishing strike - just for you button-bashers out there. Decap  does little to no damage unless it's used on final blow. Finishing with a decap will add mana points. 

Slain! will also feature a mana system adding a light strategic element to this hack and slash fest! Mana is charged by successfully decapitating foes (as mentioned) or collecting vials. The blocking feature will also play an important role in your decisions of how to approach certain combat situations. 

Below are the mana abilities:

• Fireball - this uses mana to kill foes at range.
• Bombs - the game will feature a number of different types. Shown here is the smart bomb.