deepnight.net

Deepnight Games' site is primarily a portfolio of game jam entries and prototypes, most made during Ludum Dare, alongside the studio's commercial projects. The page lists each prototype with a one-line description and its jam rankings (for example, placements in Graphics, Overall, Fun, Mood, or Theme). The most notable entries are Tenjutsu (2023 and 2022 prototypes, the latter a 48-hour jam build), Nuclear Blaze (48-hour version), Dungeon Master III, Game feel demo (v2), and Fort Loop. The site also notes that some prototypes later became full games — Tenjutsu is described as being "right before turning into a rogue."

How the page is organized

The listing mixes three kinds of work:

• Commercial / upcoming games — highlighted at the top with a trailer and wishlist prompt, described as "Combat. City builder. Rogue. From the director of Dead Cells."
• Game jam and prototype entries — the bulk of the page, each with a short tagline and jam results.
• Motion Twin work — a separate section for games the developer worked on or created during 18 years at Motion Twin.

Featured prototypes and jam entries

The table below summarizes the entries named on the page, with their descriptions and any rankings shown.

What the rankings tell you

The jam placements are the most useful signal on the page for judging each prototype. A few patterns stand out:

• Graphics-heavy winners — Delicious Cortex, Minnie & Malism, Strike of rage!, Memento XII, and A tale about life, death and a loser all took 1st in Graphics, suggesting the visual presentation of these jam builds was their strongest asset.
• Strong all-rounders — Appy 1000mg swept Overall, Fun, Theme, and Humor; Minnie & Malism took Overall, Graphics, and Fun; Atomic Creep Spawner! took Fun and placed 2nd in Graphics and 4th Overall.
• Theme-driven entries — Sabotage's only listed result is 6th in Theme, and Full Metal Democracy's spread (2nd Overall but 9th in Fun, Graphics, and Sound) shows how rankings can diverge by category.

If you want to see how a small jam concept turns into a commercial release, the Tenjutsu pair is the clearest example: the 2022 48-hour build carries the tagline "You don't know it yet, but you're already dead," and the 2023 prototype is described as being right before the project became a rogue game.

Practical notes for browsing

• The page is in English and presents the prototypes as a flat list rather than a filterable archive, so scanning the taglines and rankings is the fastest way to find a specific genre (roguelike, point-and-click, shoot-em-up, platformer).
• The site does not list prices or download links for the jam prototypes in the provided content, so treat the page as a showcase rather than a storefront for those builds.
• The Motion Twin section at the bottom covers the developer's 18 years of work there, including a 1st place for "Best Action game of the year," which is separate from the jam entries above.

Deepnight Games is promoting an upcoming game described as “Combat. City builder. Rogue.” and credited as being “From the director of Dead Cells.” The site offers two ways to follow it: Watch the trailer and Wishlist now. The available information does not specify platforms, price, or release date, so those details should not be assumed.

What the site says about the game

The homepage presents the game as the main featured project. The confirmed promotional details are:

• Genre framing: Combat, city builder, and rogue elements
• Credited creator: The director of Dead Cells
• Call to action: Watch the trailer and add the game to a wishlist

The page does not list a title, release window, supported platforms, pricing, or storefront links in the provided material. Treat those as unknown until the official page or trailer provides them.

How to follow the game

1. Watch the trailer using the link on the Deepnight Games homepage. This is the most direct way to see gameplay and confirm the game’s style.
2. Use “Wishlist now” to register interest. The page does not state which storefront the wishlist belongs to, so follow the link and confirm the destination before assuming it is Steam or another platform.
3. Check back on deepnight.net for updates. The site also hosts game jam prototypes and other projects, so the featured game may appear alongside those rather than on a separate page.

What else is on the site

The homepage also lists many game jam and prototype projects, most made during Ludum Dare. Examples include:

• Tenjutsu — 2023 and 2022 prototypes, described as “right before turning into a rogue”
• Game feel demo (v2) — a demo about learning game feel techniques
• Nuclear Blaze (48h version) — a jam version of the firefighting game
• Dungeon prototype and Dungeon Master III
• Motion Twin games — projects the creator worked on during 18 years at Motion Twin

These are separate from the featured game and are presented as prototypes or jam entries, not as the main release.

Practical caveats

• Do not assume the featured game is free or already available. The page only offers trailer and wishlist actions.
• Do not assume a specific platform or release date. The provided page evidence does not include them.
• If the wishlist link leads to a store page, check the store listing for platform and release information rather than relying on the homepage summary.

For now, the reliable next step is to watch the trailer and use the wishlist link on deepnight.net, then verify any platform or date details on the destination page.

Deepnight Games is the personal site of a developer who worked at Motion Twin for 18 years and is credited as director of Dead Cells. The site presents his own games and game-jam prototypes, while a separate section lists the Motion Twin titles he worked on or created. Deepnight Games and Motion Twin are therefore different entities: one is an individual portfolio, the other is the studio where that work happened.

The Dead Cells connection

The site's opening pitch for its featured game reads "From the director of Dead Cells," which is the clearest statement of the link. It tells you two things at once:

• The person behind Deepnight Games directed Dead Cells.
• The new game being promoted is presented as his next project after that role.

If you arrived at the site because of Dead Cells, that line is the reason the connection exists. The site does not otherwise describe the director's day-to-day responsibilities on Dead Cells, so treat "director" as the credit the site itself claims rather than a detailed role breakdown.

The Motion Twin connection

A dedicated section on the site covers "Motion Twin Games I've worked on or created during my 18 years at Motion Twin." This is the explicit evidence that the author spent 18 years at the studio and contributed to multiple titles there.

The practical takeaway: Motion Twin is the employer/studio, and Deepnight Games is where the author collects his own output. The two catalogues on the site are kept separate:

What the jam and prototype list shows

Most of the prototypes on the site were made during Ludum Dare, and many carry placement results such as graphics, overall, fun, mood, or humor rankings. Examples include Tenjutsu (a 2023 prototype described as "right before turning into a rogue," plus a 2022 48-hour jam version), a game-feel demo, Nuclear Blaze (48-hour version), and Badass Inc.

This matters for understanding the relationship: the jam work is personal and experimental, not Motion Twin output. It shows how the author tests ideas and mechanics on his own before or alongside studio work.

How to use this if you're deciding whether to follow

• You liked Dead Cells and want the director's next game: start with the featured game and its trailer/wishlist prompt on the homepage.
• You want to see the developer's range: browse the jam and prototype list, where rankings give a quick signal of what each experiment was judged on.
• You want the studio's catalogue: use the Motion Twin section, not the jam list, since those are the 18 years of studio work.

One limit to keep in mind: the site identifies the Dead Cells role and the Motion Twin tenure, but it does not spell out which specific Motion Twin titles correspond to which credits beyond listing them as work he "worked on or created."

Deepnight Games is the personal studio site of Sébastien Bénard, the director of Dead Cells. It serves two purposes: promoting his upcoming commercial game and archiving a large catalog of game jam entries and prototypes. Visit it if you want to follow the new project, wishlist it, or browse years of small experimental games with their jam rankings.

What the site is promoting

The top of the page pitches a new title described as combat, city builder, and rogue, with the line "From the director of Dead Cells." The call to action is to watch the trailer and add the game to a wishlist. The site does not list a price, release date, or platform on the captured page, so treat those details as unconfirmed until you check the store listing itself.

The jam and prototype archive

Below the main pitch is a long list of smaller projects, most made during Ludum Dare game jams. Each entry pairs a short tagline with its jam rankings, which makes the archive easy to skim by category:

The rankings are a useful filter: a "1st Overall" or "1st Fun" tag signals a jam favorite, while graphics-only wins point to visual experiments. Several entries later grew into full games—Tenjutsu and Nuclear Blaze both appear as jam versions before becoming larger projects.

Motion Twin background

A separate section lists games Bénard worked on or created during 18 years at Motion Twin, including a title ranked 1st for Best Action Game of the Year. This section is context for his commercial work rather than a catalog of independent releases.

How to use the site

• Following the new game: use the trailer and wishlist links at the top; confirm price and platforms on the store page, since the site doesn't state them.
• Studying game design: the Game feel demo (v2) is explicitly framed as a way to learn game-feel techniques, and the jam entries show how scope is cut for 48-hour deadlines.
• Finding something to play: sort by the ranking tags—start with 1st Overall winners like Minnie & Malism or Appy 1000mg.

The page is in English and is a portfolio-style site, not a storefront, so expect links out to external platforms for anything you want to download or buy.

The Game feel demo (v2) is a small playable prototype on Deepnight Games, the site of Sébastien Bénard (the director of Dead Cells). It exists to demonstrate game feel techniques — the tricks that make movement, hits, and feedback feel responsive and satisfying. It is best treated as a learning reference: play it, then study how its feedback layers are built. It is not a full game, and the site does not present it as a commercial product.

What the demo is and where it sits on the site

Deepnight Games hosts the developer's commercial projects alongside a large archive of game jam entries and prototypes. The Game feel demo (v2) sits in that prototype section, listed among jam projects such as Tenjutsu (2022 and 2023 prototypes), Dungeon Master III, Nuclear Blaze (48h version), and Fort Loop.

Two facts from the site listing are worth noting:

• The demo is explicitly labeled as a learning piece about game feel techniques.
• It placed 2nd in Graphics and 5th in Overall in its jam.

Those placements tell you what the prototype prioritizes: visual and feedback polish over scope. That matches its purpose — it is a demonstration of feel, not a content-complete game.

Why "game feel" is the thing being demonstrated

Game feel is the collection of small, mostly non-mechanical choices that determine whether an action feels good: how quickly a character accelerates, how long a hit pauses the action, how much the screen shakes, how particles and sound confirm an impact, and how input is buffered so a press is never lost.

A useful way to read the demo is to separate what you see into layers:

The demo's 2nd-place Graphics result is consistent with heavy investment in the visual feedback rows of that table.

How to use it as a learning reference

The demo is most useful if you play it with a specific question in mind rather than as entertainment. A practical routine:

1. Play first, without analysis. Note where the controls feel good or bad in your hands. This is your baseline.
2. Isolate one action. Pick a single move — a jump, an attack, a dash — and repeat it many times.
3. Change one variable at a time in your own project. If the demo's hits feel weighty, test whether hit pause or screen shake is doing most of the work by adding them separately.
4. Compare against a reference you already know. For example, if you are building a 2D action game, compare the demo's movement response against your own prototype's movement with the same input timing.
5. Verify with a fresh player. Have someone else play your version and describe the feel without prompting; their unprompted words are the real test.

The common sticking point is treating the demo as a template to copy wholesale. Its choices are tuned for its own small scope; the transferable part is the method of layering feedback and testing one change at a time, not the specific numbers.

What it is not

• It is not a tutorial with written instructions; the site presents it as a prototype, so the learning comes from playing and observing.
• It is not a finished game or a commercial release.
• The site listing does not state pricing or access requirements for the prototypes, so check the page itself before assuming how it is distributed.

Where it fits among the other prototypes

If your interest is combat and action feel, the Game feel demo is the most direct reference on the site. If your interest is broader design range, the jam archive shows the same developer working across genres — city building and rogue elements in Tenjutsu, firefighting in Nuclear Blaze, turn-based infiltration in Beneath the City, and point-and-click in Memento XII. Reading the demo alongside those entries shows how feedback techniques carry across genres rather than belonging to one.