When a child is made to Vampire Survivors and Spranky, it will be a Blood Dungeon of Mesov

If Vampire Survivors and Spelunky had a child, it would be the Blood Dungeon of Messhof.

Later this summer, another giant mythical bug will be eating you.

Blood Dungeon is a new game from Nidhogg and Wheel World studio Messhof, and it looks like a silly platformer with MS Paint-style graphics, wacky mechanics, and of course, giant flying bugs. Obviously these are all positive statements.

Blood Dungeon is a hand-animated, automatic fire 2D platformer featuring 6 arenas, 9 unique playable characters, 100+ weapons, and 100+ enemy types. Most of these features are unlocked as you progress through the map by avoiding traps, collecting resources, and moving enemies to strategic locations. Each stage naturally has plenty of platforms, but there are also nets, ladders, chains, and bodies of water to keep things interesting as hordes of enemies hunt you down.

Blood Dungeon is scheduled to release on PC and consoles in late summer this year.

In the game's reveal trailer, part of the Day of the Devs 2026 summer showcase, Messhof co-founder Mark Essen revealed that Blood Dungeon is not a Metroidvania because you don't upgrade your abilities as you progress. He described the game as something like Vampire Survivors mixed with Spelunky, saying, "It's going to be similar to other Survivor games where you're kiting enemies and they're following you in droves, but in this game too, you're in a maze. It's a maze with gravity. It's really a game about routing."

The game's villains include a giant Medusa head, a faun playing the pan flute, spooky ghosts, flying bugs, all kinds of animals, and large bugs. The main playable character is called Gun Man, and while he looks like a baby in a one-piece suit (as if drawn by a middle schooler in a computer lab in 1997), additional heroes include a hooded skeleton, a naked buff dude, a big buzzing insect, and other cool cats. There are no actual cat characters seen in the game's reveal trailer, but with over 100 enemies there may be one or two in the mix.

Messhof was founded in Venice, California in 2013 by Essen and producer Kristy Norindr. Nidhogg and Nidhogg II are 2010s indie classics that offer an elegant yet comical mix of fencing and tug-of-war mechanics, with the sequel even featuring some archery. Both games also feature giant mythical bugs that fly in at the end of each match to devour the winner. It seems that war is not the only thing that never changes.