Gloom Gate

What it is

Gloom Gate is a reaction-based action RPG. Its store page calls it a mix of "old-school dungeon crawling with soulslike elements". A curse has poured out of a mystical gate deep inside a castle, and a lone knight heads into the dark to close it. Between fights you pick a route across a maze-like castle on a node-based overworld, where nodes hold enemies, items, gear and NPCs. Fights are one-on-one duels seen from behind the knight. Early press describes them as attack, parry and sidestep, managed against a stamina bar. You earn experience, level up the knight and equip magical items as you go.

It's a one-person project by Lukas Büffel (LuBu), who previously made satOlite and Dash Arena for the Catalog. The monsters and the knight are pre-rendered animations that, in his words in Panic's launch release, "all run at 50 fps, resulting in a large number of large files". The result is a 63 MB download, very large by Playdate standards. The store page says the crank can be used "for some parts, but it is not mandatory". The game itself relies on "good timing and reactions".

Gloom Gate opened Playdate Season Three on 8 October 2026 alongside Soggy Froggy, and it's currently part of the $39 Season Three bundle. Before release it was a finalist for Most Anticipated Game at the 2025 Playdate Community Awards. Its content note warns of "monsters that can look scary to young children", fought with a sword but with "no blood visible".

Who made it

What others are saying

Callout (?): No review yet. We haven't reviewed Gloom Gate yet. This page is an overview built from official and press sources.