Demon
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
Development Blog: http://demon.ferretdev.org/devblog/
Discussion Forum: http://forum.ferretdev.org/
Overview
In Demon, you play as a Summoner who has donned one of several relics capable of binding and summoning demons. But in return, each relic compels its bearer to enter a mysterious tower from which no Summoners seem to return...
Starting with only a few meager powers and a weak demon ally bound to your relic, you must climb the tower, recruiting stronger demons and learning new skills in order to survive.
Though each relic is powerful, they still have limits: They only allow you to command - not directly control - the demons you encounter, and the powers you can acquire from these allies will never eclipse those of the mightiest demons within the tower. Without powerful, well-chosen allies and clever use of the abilities learned from them, there will be no chance of survival...
Features
- The 30 floor tower awaits you, its layout generated anew each game.
- Over 195 different demons to recruit and summon as allies.
- More than 880 different abilities you and your demon allies can learn.
- Rich, detailed in-game descriptions drawn from real world mythology for each demon.
10/26/2021 Update Highlights
- The time has finally come: the Tower's final floor is open and awaits Summoners who have the determination to see their quest for power through to its conclusion!
- Seven new heroes and seven new unique demons await to challenge those who can reach them in the new endgame areas. Other new demons accompany them as well.
- Geminimax did a pass on his older character sprites, making significant improvements and updates to many of them. Thank you Geminimax!
- Ontoclasm provided new art for status effects to add to his UI icon set. Thank you Ontoclasm!
- A few other bug fixes and tweaks are also included.
System Requirements
Demon runs on Windows 7 SP1+, Mac OS X 10.11+, and Ubuntu 12.04+.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- 7/21: Brand Build Release!Jul 21, 2019
- Matter Build Released!May 12, 2018
Comments
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Solid game, hope for more update
I'm glad you like it. :D Unfortunately, Demon is no longer in active development, so the only updates at this point would be if some sort of ugly bug is found.
That said, it is a complete and fairly lengthy game, so I think you'll find plenty to enjoy. :) Good luck in the Tower!
Hey, I want to savescum, where are the saves stored? And is turning off online features enough to keep away jerks that like to harass the dirty cheater?
The save file location is based on your OS. You can use the information on this page to help you figure it out: https://docs.unity3d.com/ScriptReference/Application-persistentDataPath.html
If the information there doesn't work, feel free to leave another comment telling me what OS you're on and we'll figure it out. :)
Yes, if online features are off, you're completely cut off from other players and vice versa.
Thanks for playing Demon, and good luck in the Tower. :D
Thank you! I found the saves and am happily manipulating spacetime for my amusement. :D
Is there a downloadable manual? I'm finding it more than a bit unwieldy to drop everything I'm doing in-game to look something up from the help menu or the codex. And the codex isn't searchable, either, but I took the spoilered one and it doesn't seem to have an entry for West? Am I blind or what?
Oh, and small bug report, really nothing anyone would run into unless they're cheating: The game needs an empty folder for the character slot you're using if you want to be able start a new game on that slot. If you just delete the save and don't replace it with an empty folder, the game will blackscreen. I think the game's looking for a save folder and doesn't know what to do if it doesn't find one.
Unfortunately, there is not a separate manual for Demon, my apologies. I threw up the raw text on Pastebin for you though: https://pastebin.com/g8dmT0pp It will contain a few encoding lines used by Demon to display colors and handle the table of contents, but it should suffice.
The codex only shows recruitable characters. Humans such as West are not reflected in it (in much the same way a Pokedex does not, at least in the Pokemon games I played, show trainers)
Yeah; there will probably be some bugs if you change the save or records directories in ways the game isn't expecting. It didn't seem to be a good effort investment to go overboard armoring it up against problems that were very unlikely to occur during normal operation.
Thanks again! Just being able to keep the manual open while playing is a big help.
I didn't realize West was human, lol. I guess it makes sense the codex doesn't have him.
It's going slow so far, and I'm dying a lot (except I turn back time, lol), but I'm having a blast. I hope I improve enough to actually clear the game. XD
Hello, I have come to ask for tips. I've tried out your game throughout the years and every time, I never got past the fourth floor and died a lot before reaching it.
I usually picked the Orb of Power, but I'm not sure how to make good use of it. What should I be doing to ensure my ability to climb the tower?
Hey :D Thanks for trying the game; I can give some help of course, but you may find help from other players in the #demon channel of the roguelikes Discord too if you're up for joining: https://discord.gg/t9cVHhj
As for some starting tips, I can offer a few:
I hope this helps. :D I apologize for the delay in responding, it's been a busy week here. Good luck in the Tower!
Let me comment that Gandayah also fuses Lifegiver, so if you managed to find a second one, it would be easier on your resources to just fuse the two of them into each other, since all you need to do to link with a Gandayah is wait.
I hate them gold digger faeries :V (Though their skills aren't half bad, I guess.)
I hear good things about this game, but it's unplayable on my laptop because the window size is too large and cuts off the screen. Is there a fullscreen option I'm not finding?
Hmm.. what OS are you using? I know Windows at least can go full-screen by Alt+Enter, I'd try that if you're in Windows. Not sure about Mac or Linux though, but I'd imagine they do too.
If the OS fullscreen key doesn't work or your OS doesn't have one, get into main gameplay (i.e.: your character visible in the dungeon and no other menus or prompts open) and try F11, Demon's own fallback fullscreen. It usually isn't the best option available, but it sometimes works when the OS-level option doesn't.
Sorry for the trouble, by the by. Demon is supposed to try and size itself down if it feels it is necessary, but there is a limit to that behavior and I don't use laptops myself so it is possible you have one with a screen smaller than it can support. I hope one of the fullscreen methods can help.
I am using Ubuntu 22.04. F11 does make it full screen, but it has some very uncomfortable flickering on the left side of the screen. My resolution is 1280x720, that might be the issue but I can't really do anything about that unfortunately.
Well, crud. I have no idea why it'd flicker like that. :/
If Alt+F10 (Ubuntu's full screen mode) didn't work any better, we're running low on options, but there is one more thing we can try.
Some Linux-specific issues have been resolved in the past by running Demon using one the following command line options:
-force-glcore32
-force-opengl
-force-glcore45
Which one helps (if any do) will likely be system specific, so I'd just try all three in sequence and see if any resolve the flickering issue in F11's full screen mode.
Sorry for the long wait, but the only solution I could find after moving to Linux Mint was to just autohide my toolbar and play windowed. I definitely feel you should still add some resolution options at some point for the sake of accessibility. Looking forward to finally trying this! I'm a big Megaten fan so this should definitely scratch the itch (no pun intended).
No worries on the delay, I'm just glad you were able to find at least a partial fix.
Regrettably, most of Demon's core systems (including those related to rendering and resolution) were made by me back when I was much newer at engineering (over a decade ago now!): while it would not be impossible to refactor them to something capable of better resolution support, it would be a pretty significant undertaking that I admit is unlikely at this point given Demon is no longer in active development.
I apologize for this and I hope you are able to enjoy the game in spite of the resolution limitations. I am also a big Megaten fan, which is what inspired me to make this game in the first place. :D Cheers, and good luck in the tower!
Posted the 8/4/2023 build, which fixes a number of bugs that have been reported since the last update in May of 2022. I left the 5/23 builds up for now just in case, in my rustiness at making Demon builds, I goofed something up with the 8/4/2023 builds. Enjoy!
Posted the 5/22 build, which makes some AI improvements, as well as a few balance changes and text improvements. :) Enjoy!
Posted the 2/24 build, which fixes a nasty lock up bug that happens if you have the Item Sense upgrade and fully explore Tower:30. Cheers!
Amazing game Ferret! Was wondering if you planned to put it up on Steam at all at some point? I definitely wouldn't mind double dipping on this game
Thank you! :D Unfortunately, a Steam release is not planned at this time, but I appreciate you wanting to see it there. :)
It's been ages since I played. Is there a way to adjust the window size?
I know I can alt+enter to force fullscreen, but that's rather ugly. I was thinking more in a sense of keeping the scale, just fitting more on screen.
Try pressing F11 while in the main dungeon view: this is a different full screen method Demon uses that sometimes works better, depending on your system.
Hmm, that seems to just add a black frame around the game to make it full screen (as in the UI doesn't move to the edges, etc.). I guess it's somewhat better than stretching at least.
btw. love the game, even though I'm dogshit at it. Still kinda miss the time when each relic got different abilities and you picked two elements.. I get why it was changed, but it gave you so many starting options.
Hmm... well, boo. :( I admit resolution management in general hasn't been a strong point of mine, but I happen to be in the neighborhood looking into a different issue, so I will see if I can figure out anything better this time.
I'm glad you love the game though. :D And yeah, the old starts did have a lot of options but... oof. Many players didn't even feel like they needed to add abilities to their summoner until Tower:10+. I liked the choice of it and tried to preserve that somewhat when I ended up having to nerf it, but the starters definitely had to come down in power more than a bit.
Regarding fullscreen, I was thinking something along the lines of UI always being in corner/edges and the UI/Tiles size being constant, just when you make the window bigger/full more tiles fit. Kind how the itch.io app behaves when you resize the window - everything stays the same size, you can just fit less/more.
But I assume this type of flexibility is not easy, especially without existing framework.
I cant seem to be able to make it go full screen in any way
What OS are you playing on?
Hey folks. :) Posted a small update with a few minor bug fixes. :D Enjoy!
Uploaded a small fix to a bug with the lore display for two of the new characters. :) Enjoy!
The Tower's final floor is here! Download the new build and you can finally complete your journey to the top of the Tower where you must face the ultimate trials in order to escape. Enjoy, and good luck in the Tower!
Posted another update with a tiny fix to the Friction Burn ability. Enjoy, and good luck in the Tower!
Pushed a small update with some minor bug fixes. :) Feel free to grab it once you finish your current 5/31 run. Good luck!
The new build is out! Ontoclasm's icon set has been expanded to include art for Brands, over 90 new abilities have been distributed throughout the Tower, and 4 new types of modifiers that can generate new and surprising ability combinations have been added. Additionally, a major pass was done on abilities on existing demons, with many receiving new abilities (especially those later in the Tower.) Some good bug fixes and improvements as well, including a performance improvement for player parties using Aura abilities. Enjoy, and good luck in the Tower!
Posted a small update with some balance tweaks and new item icons for the Ontoclasm icon set! Enjoy, and good luck in the Tower!
The new build is out! An amazing new icon set created by Ontoclasm (https://ontoclasm.itch.io/) has been added, and a significant balance pass focused on cooldown abilities and Relic Upgrades has been completed. Enjoy, and good luck in the Tower!
Don't get toooo excited, this recent update is just a small number of bug fixes. :) Will be starting on the next major update soon though. :D
The new build is out! Three more floors have been added to the Tower, including well over a dozen new demons and close to fifty new abilities. If you're still trying to reach the top, don't worry: you can run into the new demons and abilities in lower floors too, as out of depth encounters or abilities granted by demon modifiers. Enjoy, and good luck in the Tower!
Posted an updated build that fixes a nasty bug with the Great Healer passive. A new content build will also be coming fairly soon(tm), but the bug was nasty enough I wanted to push out an immediate fix.
So I picked this up on a whim hearing about how it's similar to Megaten and I immediately loved it, but what it really did was introduce me to roguelikes in general, so thanks for that.
You can really tell that there's care but into this, I've been playing for a few months now and plan to play many more. Keep it up boss!
Thank you! I'm glad you've enjoyed Demon and I'm even happier it served as an intro to roguelikes for you: I'm not sure I've heard of Demon being anyone's intro to the genre before this, but I'm glad it is able to be a good ambassador, so to speak.
I'm currently working on the next update, so there's more coming, no worries on that point. :)
just got this game, i heard of it a while ago, but just decided to download it. Its really fun! very unique too. A small problem i have is just the the window is a bit too big for my screen, idk if youre working on that or not, but if not, it can wait as its still very much playable. If there is a setting that i missed, let me know. but this game is great, i hope you keep working on it and and keep it amazing!
Hey, and thanks for playing Demon! As a workaround to your issue, try pressing F11 once you are in the main game (can see the dungeon on screen, no other prompts) to switch to full screen mode and see if that is any help.
For a real fix, I may need a bit information about your system: press F5 in game (same conditions as F11) and please tell me what it says, as well as what OS you are running Demon on.
Thanks!
Ah thanks, F11 works great, and for F5 i got "Demon thinks your desktop has a resolution of 1366x768, and is currently running a resolution of 1080x720 (1366x768 in fullscreen). The camera is rendering an area defined by (x:0.00 (107.00 in fullscreen, y:0.00, width:1080.00 (1152.00 in fullscreen), height:720.00 (768.00 in fullscreen)):11.25 (12 in fullscreen)". I am running this on Windows 10.
Oh, and have you considered making a discord server?
It looks like Demon is doing the best it can with the resolution you've got, but 720 is as small as it can go on the Y axis. :( If F11 is working happily, my recommendation would be to continue using that; it is unlikely Demon will support window sizes smaller than Nx720 in the near future.
Demon doesn't have its own Discord, but we do have a channel on the roguelikes Discord. :D This link should be a valid invite for it: https://discord.com/invite/HVBmg7
New build released! The new build includes several quality of life improvements to the UI that I hope you'll all enjoy. Next up: Tower floors 27 through 29! Until then, good luck in the Tower!
The game is a gem. Congratulations for such a good work, keep better.
Thank you, I'm glad you're enjoying it. :) There is still more to come, no worries on that. :D
I added a new Readme file to the 3/2/2020 Mac version download that gives instructions on how to get it running on Catalina. I will continue to investigate the issue on my end in hopes of finding a fix I can provide rather than asking players to fix it on their end. Thank you for your patience, and good luck in the Tower!
Posted a quick update (3/2 version) that fixes a bug with Hecate not having the proper inherent Modifier. Cheers!
The 3/1 build is out! Climb to the Tower's new 24th-26th floors, encountering over a dozen new demons and over forty new abilities!
P.S.: Beware the Thrones!
Hey, just wanted to say i think this is a fantastic game, i like seeing the updates it has gotten, it's really well made and i like how you've done it. Hope to see many lovely new updates and hope you have a great day :)
Thank you, I'm glad you like i! I'm working on the next update as we speak. :D
I look forward to it :)
The 10/27 build containing the point-based Upgrade system and new starter demons has been released! With many Upgrades now cheaper than before, there should be new and interesting possibilities available for upgrading your Relic.
Also worthy of the mention: the Titan's Fist Relic's starting Upgrades now provide a way to play with little or no summoning. Demons will still be necessary for success with such a build, but as teachers and Soul Armor / Consume sacrifices more than active participants in combat.
Cheers, and good luck in the Tower!
It's been a long time, but a new build is finally up, introducing Soul Brands to the game. Soul Brands are more or less Demon's answer to equipment: randomly generated items that can be applied to characters to provide various bonuses (and sometimes, penalties or restrictions.)
There's a whole lot more to this feature than I can really fit in a comment though. Go read the change list above, or download the game and explore it yourself to get the complete picture.
Cheers, and good luck in the Tower!
great addition 10/10
:D I'm glad you like it!
New build is up. :D Nothing too exciting, just a bug fix build, but I wanted to go ahead and release these fixes before starting on the next major update. Cheers!
A great and unconventional roguelike that is challenging even to well-prepared players.
In one of my first playthroughs I got to Anomaly:3 with a score of 4307, and ended up getting defeated by the summoner in there, which not only has proffessional strategy, fully upgraded monsters and powerful healing abilities, but also is at higher level at the player.
Anyway, my attempt to to get resistances from the will o' wisp at the cost of 9K was a bad move.
:D Thank you, and I'm glad you're enjoying Demon. :) Paracelsus is a pretty tough fight, but it's impressive you got to him at all on one of your first playthroughs: the Anomaly itself is a nasty bit of work, long feared by even veteran players. :D Good luck on your future adventures in the Tower!
In fact, I consider it not much harder than any other bonus location, if you plan your actions carefully. For comparison, being assaulted by a group of ogres in Arcadia or hordes of MaxHP draining enemies in Turdak's Sanctrum is a much more terrifying sight.
Also, I've finally defeated him :D
Just for the sake of doing it, since it's easy to grab all stuff on the floor without putting up a serious fight with him.
This time I've fully assembled my strategy just in time, and focused on draining his mana with my ice attacks. He did spawn with weaker minions this time, and I ended up only moderately wounded.
:D Congrats! I don't know that I've seen someone use Ice SP-draining on him before, but I can definitely see how it'd help, and you usually can get all the pieces by the time you run into him.
But don't worry, the Tower's got plenty of other scary stuff waiting for you. :D
New build is released! Demon Preservation and revamped character creation are now available, and some of the previous restrictions on party composition and resistances have been removed. Enjoy!
New build is up. :D The 9/30 build improves fullscreen support (particularly on Linux systems) and provides other bug fixes and quality of life improves. Enjoy!
Whoops. Uploaded 9/1/2018_b to fix a small bug with a few modifiers having misplaced abilities.
New builds posted! Enjoy experimenting with all the new abilities, and good luck in the Tower!
Thanks for the update.
No proper fullscreen yet, i see (still stretched), sadly.
That's the task for the very next build, already in progress. :D
Hey folks. :) Just released a small update that adds multiple save slot support: you can now have eight different games in progress at once. Cheers!
Why can I not download via itch.io app? it says not available on windows.
Whoops! I forgot to check the little boxes to indicate which file is for which OS, apologies! Should be fixed now.
I'm very grateful for your quick response! Thank you!
No problem. :) Good luck in the Tower!
The 5/13 builds fix a small bug that caused enemy summoners to sometimes spawn with only one demon summoned. Cheers!
Whew! It's been a long haul, but the Matter build has finally been released! The new Matter element, fully fleshed out by the addition of over 80 new abilities and nearly 20 new demons awaits you in the Tower! Good luck!