Erosion’s time-shift deaths power a twin-stick roguelike

Erosion is an indie twin-stick roguelike shown in a hands-on demo at the Steam Game Festival. The game lets player deaths and actions change the future state of towns and non-player characters. The game’s Steam description reads: “Die in a dungeon? Wake up ten years later. That peaceful farm is now a cultist compound worshipping the Great Ol’ Rooster. That store owner you helped? They’ve built an empire.”

Gameplay is divided between an overworld hub and procedurally generated dungeons. In the hub players can race a speeder, gamble at a casino, go sand fishing and hunt bounties. Choices made in the hub and outcomes from previous runs alter town layouts and character roles over time. Most combat takes place in dungeons where rooms, enemies and breakable objects are randomized each run.

Combat uses standard twin-stick controls and emphasizes fast, responsive encounters. The game offers more than 100 unlockable skills and multiple modifiers that change attack behavior. Weapon types include rocket launchers and rifles, and the demo showed items such as the Ebony Rooster, a weapon that fires bouncing eggs that ricochet around arenas. Skills are gained by opening certain chests and defeating bosses.

A later-game demonstration used a save with many unlocks to show skill interactions. In that build an attack spawned bouncing projectiles that duplicated on impact, quickly filling rooms with additional damaging orbs. Those interactions allowed the player to clear rooms and defeat a boss in seconds in that particular session.

A developer on hand focused the demo on the core gameplay as well as the time-based systems, and the session highlighted several build combinations that increase damage output. The hands-on run portrayed combat as challenging and responsive while showing a wide range of potential synergies.

The demo also highlighted visual differences between the overworld and the dungeons. Areas shown in the dungeons appeared muted and grey compared with the stylistic hub locations. The Steam Game Festival build left open questions about long-term progression and whether later areas or the time-shifting mechanics will introduce greater visual variety.