Coming soon

About This Demo

The Therapist Will See You Now

Dark Thoughts is a bullet heaven about fighting the literal dark thoughts inside your head. You pick a damaged hero, wield their trauma as their weapon and ability, and take an arsenal into a domain of dread; apathy, grief, anger, hate, shame, fear. They all await. Survive long enough and you'll be forced to face the heavy hitters of trauma head-on.

What's In The Demo

This is a slice of the full game. 

• Two domains to conquer: Apathetica and the Gala of Grief.

• Five-minute runs: Each one ends with the domain's boss arriving with sixty seconds left on the clock. Kill it or don't.

• The tutorial: For those who haven't been to bullet heaven before. 

• The full starting arsenal: :Six weapons, six abilities, upgrades, pairings, re-rolls. Even evolutions are possible. 

• See the rest of the game: Seven more domains, ten more heroes, new weapons, abilities and much more. 

*Happiness still accrues while you play. You just can't spend it.

Twelve Heroes, None of Them Stable

• DJ Introverto: Never leaves his fortress. Crippling anxiety will do that to you. 

• Sr. Shitposter: Spent years radicalizing senior citizens online and his family at home. All he’s got to show for it is panic attacks.

• PorkiPanda the Influencer: A pathological liar. But it’s a feature not a bug. It pays off in spades as a slimy Influencer.

• Kar Krash Karen: was rear-ended into a rage disorder at a red light and ever since has been in suburban samurai training thanks to tutorials online.

• Danny Doomscroller: his dad let him get online way too young, now he spreads conspiracies in Discord all day. But finally those FPS skills can shine! 

• Psycho L. Bin: she’s a hallucinogenic enthusiast that has acquired devastating mental abilities but they came at a cost. 

• Stikipanda: He’s driven by the rage that consumes him, with a brother like Porki it’s not a surprise he’s unhinged. 

• Short King: aka Li’l Sane is Karen’s offspring and protege, his blade isn’t as long but his bitterness makes it cut very deep. 

• Sin Bin: like her twin sister she is also mentally gifted but she earned her powers the old school way she signed a deal with the Devil. 

• NYX91: is the updated Technomancer model and is built for this. But it also records every kill and is coded to analyze them incessantly.

• SE7EN11: was replaced by the updated Technomancer model and was left out to pasture, now its devotion goes unnoticed and outbursts are frequent.

• Plaxico: is a dyslexic subterranean hellhound that loves to hunt but gets bored easily. 

Nine Domains of the Diagnosis

Each map is a mental battlefield, with a host of hostiles and with dark thoughts flying from all directions you’ll be hard pressed to complete each maps duration. 

• Apathetica: the land of apathy, doze off at your own discretion as that’s when the dark thoughts make their move. 

• Gala of Grief: where dreams go to die as evident by the sea of decay. Death patrols this land with laser focus.

• Ragebait Ridge: the place you go to deal with loss. You can rage all you want, it’s never coming back. 

• Loathe Land: not the place you want to reside as hate is everywhere and loathing isn’t good for the skin. 

• The Hole In My Heart: heartbreak is never easy, it takes time to heal and you need to evolve to move forward. 

• Shame Spiral Street: a rundown pocket of the city that is beyond shameful. 

• Fearmonger Farm: if you get dropped off here you’ll be eating crow. But don’t be afraid, they’ll eat you too. 

• Voices In Your Head: they sit up there and judge you, tear you down but all you need to do is stand strong. 

• Dystopia: the hardest map is also the most inevitable one, our downfall is your downfall. 

Afflictions Become Your Weapons

Each hero comes equipped with afflictions that turn into a weapon and ability when on the battlefield. Leveraging their afflictions to battle the mental anguish is how you take control and evolve. Max out their afflictions and they’ll evolve into a powerful God-like combo. But how your Heroes progress is up to you, you make the choices in the end so it’s all on you. 

A Clinical Journal of Failure

Every run you’ll find both sanity and happiness. Sanity will keep you alive but happiness is deeper than that. You need to collect happiness and then administer it between runs. Applying happiness to your Mental Health is imperative to your long-term success. Keep an eye on your Case File to ensure you’re progressing positively and with over 100+ accolades to keep you chasing your therapists adoration. 

An Album You Earn and Keep

Alongside the game Dark Thoughts there’s also a full-length 15 track album by the creator, Pastor Fussycat. Pastor is a long-time music producer and has been releasing music for many years. For Dark Thoughts he went back into his discography and remixed his best mentally-anguished songs specifically for this game. He then crafted a new lead track to spearhead the album appropriately titled Dark Thoughts.

But, the only way to unlock the entire album for download for free?

Complete all 10 maps in the game. 

Unlock The Rest

The full game has lots to defeat with all of the other maps, weapons and abilities to unlock and an album to get for free. Can you evolve them all? 

Please wiishlist it and help a solo dev get seen! 

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

Portions of this game's content were created with the assistance of generative AI tools and then curated, edited, and integrated by the development team. This includes: 2D artwork (character, enemy, and boss art; ability and upgrade card illustrations; some environment and UI art), the store page capsule and library images, the intro cinematic video, the voice-over narration in the trailer, and the game's music. All AI-assisted content was reviewed by a human before inclusion. The game does not generate any content with AI at runtime, and no player data is sent to AI services.

Mature Content Description

The developers describe the content like this:

Dark Thoughts is a bullet-heaven game that uses mental health as its central metaphor. Enemies represent intrusive thoughts and are depicted as stylized cartoon creatures; bosses are named after clinical concepts (grief, shame, fear). Combat is cartoon-violent with pixel-art blood effects. There is no depiction of self-harm or suicide, and no mechanic representing either. The framing is metaphorical and the tone is sympathetic toward the subject.