Devlog 8 – Infecting a community

Sometimes an indie game community starts with a shared love of games. Sometimes it starts with a free merch.
This month, Niko takes over the devlog to tell the story of how he went from discovering Stay Dead at GDC to playtesting builds, breaking the game, and eventually becoming one of the voices of our community.

Devlog July 2026 – Rebuilding the Boss Fight

A great boss fight is more than a bigger enemy with a bigger health bar. It’s the culmination of everything you’ve learned along the way: a final test of the mechanics, puzzles, and skills you’ve picked up throughout the level. This month, we’re taking you behind the scenes of how we rebuilt our first boss encounter through playtesting, redesigns, community feedback, and a few bugs determined to steal the spotlight.

Devlog June 2026 – Building the Gameplay Loop

Our first playable demo proved something important: the gameplay loop works. This month, we shifted from asking “Can this game work?” to “How do we make every room teach, surprise, and reward the player?”

Devlog May 2026 – Building the Bite

After months of prototypes, broken systems, and trying to figure out what Stay Dead actually wanted to be, we finally built our first playable demo of the year! (Insert round of applause for our sleep-deprived dev team here.)

It’s messy and held together with duct tape and hope, but we’re ridiculously proud of it and can’t wait to show you what we’ve been building.

Devlog April 2026 – Three Demos, One Bite

We’ve been back at the drawing board — again. This time, everything revolves around one question: what happens when the Bite becomes the core of the game?

Devlog March 2026 – Back to the Lore

This month’s devlog is a bit different.
Instead of showing new gameplay, we’re stepping back to talk about something we’ve never fully shared before: where the world of Stay Dead actually comes from.
Not the full story of course (we’re still working on it)… just enough to make you want to #GetBit.

Devlog February 2026 – One Room. Four Theories.

Instead of trying to agree on what game should focus on, each game dev built their own version of what they thought might actually be fun. This month’s devlog is basically what happened when we stopped trying to be aligned… and just started testing our assumptions properly.

Devlog January 2026: Biting Back to the Core

This devlog is not about finished features. It’s a peek into our design process: the systems we scrapped, the sandbox we built, and the weird experiments we’re running to make the Bite feel like more than just a zombie trope.

Devlog 6: Ready for 2026

We spent 2025 building our demo. Then we threw most of it out.
This is the story of how Stay Dead changed direction, found new brains, and went back to the drawing board, not out of failure, but to finally chase the spark that could make this undead game feel truly alive.

Devlog 5: Siente la Mordida — Más Sobre cómo Afinamos el Combate

This month, we zoomed in on what matters most: combat. The team entered a full combat system sprint to focus on the interconnected mechanics that drive the moment-to-moment experience.
Why the emphasis? Because the game combat system is the core loop. If it doesn’t feel great, nothing else does. So we built new tools, added polish, and ran a lot of internal tests to push the system further.