Ghost Ship Publishing announce their first three games, including a Deep Rock Galactic spin-off
A magical deck builder, a shooty roguelike, and a Vampire Survivors-esque spin-off of Deep Rock
Earlier this month, the studio behind Deep Rock Galactic announced that they were branching out (or digging in) to publishing with their new initiative Ghost Ship Publishing. Today, the team held a fifth-anniversary livestream for their hit co-op shooter, and they also announced the first three games they’ll be releasing as a publisher, including a Deep Rock Galactic spin-off, a top-down shooter, and a spell-slinging roguelike - all coming from indie teams based in Denmark.
The first game announced was Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor, a top-down single-player auto-shooter from Funday Games. The trailer shows off the same loop from Ghost Ship’s shooter, just from a different perspective this time. We’re still controlling the loveable space Dwarfs, we’re still shooting pesky underground critters, and we’re still gathering gems in pursuit of upgrades. Honestly, it looks a little like Vampire Survivors, so my sleep schedule is scared. Anyway, I’m glad it’s launching into early access on PC later this year.
Next up is SpellRogue, a magical deck-building roguelike where you take part in turn-based fights using magical dice. Ghost Ship Publishing compared the game to Slay The Spire, which is immediately a good sign for developer Guidelight Games’ debut. There’s no release window for this one yet, but its Steam Page is live now.
Finally we have DarkSwarm, a top-down shooter from Bitfire Games that you can play in four-player co-op. Darkswarm loosely follows a similar premise to Deep Rock: a group of mercenaries shoot waves of alien baddies in procedurally generated levels. This one looks a little more tense, ominous, and downright scary than anything I’ve seen in Deep Rock, though. Oh, and there’s destructible environments too, which is always a neat touch. There’s no release window for DarkSwarm either, but it’ll launch on PC whenever it’s ready.
Two weeks ago, Ghost Ship Publishing’s CEO Søren Lundgaard described the initiative as a way to “lift up” Danish indie devs through “funding and marketing expertise.” In today’s livestream Lundgaard claimed that all three titles will have a “consumer-friendly business model,” something that Deep Rock Galactic has held on to, despite its mega-success.