Famed developer Ron Gilbert’s new game, Death by Scrolling, was showcased in video form at the Gamescom 2025 Opening Night. It is a pixel-art, vertically-scrolling roguelike game with action-RPG elements and a morbid sense of humor.

Death by Scrolling takes you to Purgatory™, a seemingly bright and colorful world of retro-styled pixel-art that’s constantly being consumed by an encroaching wall of flames. Because of this, the gameplay is constantly auto-scrolling upwards, forcing you to keep moving forward–hence the title.

The trailer shows five selectable heroes, each with unique perks. The gameplay showcased in the trailer has the heroes fighting against various threats while the environment scrolls upward, all the meanwhile collecting power-ups (in the form of cards) and gold. Eventually, the hero is pursued by a reaper, who seems to be haunting them with all manner of debilitating stat debuffs. The goal is to collect a certain amount of money and pay the ferryman in order to escape Purgatory™–which is likely much easier said than done.

Since this is a roguelike, you can likely expect to have to die and restart several times over, though what sort of perks and boost might carry over between runs is unclear. There are quest and shop systems mentioned in the trailer, which may be a hint as to how that works.

No release date has been set, though the game is now available to wishlist on Steam.

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