Indie studio Ao Norte announces its new game, Die or Die, coming to Steam Early Access soon, now has a free demo on Steam. Die or Die is a top-down roguelite shooter with dice management elements where luck is as important as skill. Before every level, you roll a bunch of dice, and you have to decide what to do with their results in the Planning Phase, either deactivating bummers, handicaps that make level incrementally harder, or acquiring weapons and skills.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg8EFPrTbSs
Die or Die isn’t just another roguelike twin stick shooter. In this game, players will have to roll the dice and plan how each level will unfold, either deactivating bummers and purchasing weapons and skills. Bummers are specific handicaps that make levels incrementally harder in a specific way, like bigger or stronger enemies, or particularly crazy things like inverted controls, friendly fire, explosive bullets, an invisible HUD, or meteor rains. Or enemies who sing off pitch at the top of their lungs. Weapons and skills allow you to level up your game, becoming more and more powerful as the run progresses: bigger and meaner weapons that affect huge areas, set your enemies on fire when you hit them, turn into a vengeful ghost upon death, or get a line of conjoined twins, all equally armed to the teeth.
And then, after you’ve decided what to do with all your dice you jump right into the fight... and you die. A lot. But every time you’ll unlock new weapons and abilities until you eventually clear your way to the coast through 5 different worlds full of enemies and hazards.
KEY FEATURES
ABOUT AO NORTE
Ao Norte was founded in 2022 by Rubén Calles and Diego Freire, after more than 8 years in the videogame industry. As a team of 5 persons, they are trying to create a game dev community in the north of Spain, a country with few game studios and little community. They released their first game, Tiny Garden, in 2025. They’re an LGTBQ+ friendly studio and love to spend time watching wrestling, growing tomatoes, and playing Gartic Phone.
KEY FEATURES
- A unique twist to the roguelite genre: you choose the dangers you will face
- 5 worlds each with a different settings, with procedurally generated levels
- A mix of shooting and strategy: balance improving your build and getting rid of bummers
- Huge replayability: on top of having lots of bummers, skills, and weapons, luck makes every playthrough unique
- A colorful cartoonish art style with over-the-top crazy, absurd humor, inspired by cartoons from the 90s such as Ren & Stimpy or Cow and Chicken
ABOUT AO NORTE
Ao Norte was founded in 2022 by Rubén Calles and Diego Freire, after more than 8 years in the videogame industry. As a team of 5 persons, they are trying to create a game dev community in the north of Spain, a country with few game studios and little community. They released their first game, Tiny Garden, in 2025. They’re an LGTBQ+ friendly studio and love to spend time watching wrestling, growing tomatoes, and playing Gartic Phone.