News: Don’t Die, Collect Loot - Early Access Hits Steam
Dan Makes Video Games, in partnership with indie.io, launched Don’t Die, Collect Loot into Early Access on Steam on September 19, 2025, priced at $9.99 USD with a 20% launch discount. This arcade roguelite RPG blends retro aesthetics with bullet-hell dodging and chaotic loot collection, encouraging players to become absurdly overpowered through wild, randomized gear. Players guide one of three hero classes—Adventurer, Arcanist, or Beastmaster—through procedurally generated fantasy worlds frozen in time, battling hordes of enemies to amass loot and uncover lore about a mysterious catastrophe, with death as a minor setback.
Each run features intense bullet-hell combat on scrolling screens, where players gain run-specific levels, global experience for skill upgrades, and heaps of loot with over a dozen modifiers, from supercharged items to vendor trash. The Adventurer smashes enemies, the Arcanist casts arcane spells, and the Beastmaster summons minions, each with extensive skill trees for diverse builds. A robust crafting system and modifiers like “wolves shoot bees” enable creative, rule-breaking play. Early Access includes the Endless Nightmare mode, a scalable endgame, with a free demo available boasting a 92% positive rating from 26 Steam reviews.
Solo developer Dan Marchand, an industry veteran, designed Don’t Die, Collect Loot to embrace powergaming and system exploitation, with two additional classes (rogue, archer) and a Volcano tileset planned for the year-long Early Access. Community feedback via Discord and Steam will refine the game’s hundreds of skills and thousands of item properties, ensuring balanced, entertaining chaos. A full release in roughly a year will add more bosses, loot, and endgame content, with a potential moderate price increase. Wishlist now to join the loot-fueled power fantasy.