Planned Release Date: Oct 1, 2026

About This Demo

Welcome to the official single-player demo of Westward Dash! In just 10 to 15 minutes, experience a complete head-to-head race from space 1 all the way to Thunderclap Summit on space 100.

What You Can Play in This Demo

• Play as Sun Wukong: Might of the Great Sage adds +1 at every boss gate, Demons Give Way scatters grunts on sight, and Staff Counter sends whoever strikes him staggering back.
  
• 1v1 Duel Against the CPU: Face off against a sharp AI rival, your roll then theirs, neither of you giving an inch.
  
• Two Core Game Modes: Classic mode offers pure tabletop racing using items and space events. One-shot mode brings signature push-your-luck thrills: risk a second Dash die each turn to surge ahead or bust!
  
• Three Classic Demon King Gates: A fixed trio of perils stands between you and the Summit. Strike down the White Bone Demon through her triple disguises, muscle past the Bull Demon King, and conquer the Golden-Winged Peng at the final gate.
  
• 18 languages, keyboard and mouse or full controller support, and it runs on Steam Deck. The game is full of classical Chinese motifs: ink-wash painting laid down with brush, ink, paper and inkstone, dragon patterns, hanging scrolls and the pipa. The visual assets were generated using Google Flow. Claude assisted with programming. Lingrujiang, my wife, played the pipa and arranged the accompanying instruments with Suno AI. A few tracks are traditional melodies; the rest are original.

Enjoy the Demo? Wishlist the Full Game!

Westward Dash releases soon. The full game includes:

• The Full 8-Pilgrim Roster: Unlock Sandy, Pigsy, the White Dragon Horse, the Mountain Patrol Demon, and more, each with unique signature techniques and passives.
  
• 2 to 8 Player Multiplayer: Race online with Steam friends or pass the controller around the couch for chaotic local game nights. Every player reads the game in their own language at the same table!
  
• All Game Modes: Beyond Classic and One-shot, dive into snowballing momentum in Streak mode, and bank your Qi to unleash tide-turning ultimates in Charge mode.
  
• Custom House Rules: Take full control of the rulebook with 19 fine-tuning dials and saved preset slots.
  
• Ten Demon Kings, Full Soundtrack, Scene Unlocks & 81 Achievements: Face ten randomized bosses (including inverted gates), unlock the full Pipa soundtrack, scene wallpapers in the Compendium, and 81 achievements. The pilgrims of the novel pass exactly 81 trials on the road west, and there are exactly 81 medals here.

The Story Behind the Game

This is a board game I played as a kid.

I bought a Journey to the West board game at a corner shop for one yuan: a paper board, four pieces, and a single die. I'd round up one to three friends, we'd sit around it and roll our way from space 1 to space 100. That board was lost long ago, but the tension, the cheering and the laughter around that table never left me.

I have always loved games. Years later that old board came back to me, and I rebuilt it as a hobby: apart from work and sleep, nearly every hour went into it, and I loved every minute. My wife has been learning the pipa for two years, and every pipa note in the game is hers. A modern take on qin se he ming, two instruments in harmony: I write the game, she plays the pipa.

Westward Dash is an indie game made by one person. I hope you enjoy it.

Dedicated to the friends who once threw dice with me, back when we were young.

Xiaoyaozi

AI Generated Content Disclosure

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

All 2D artwork (characters, board, keeper portraits, medals, and store assets) was created with generative AI tools under the developer's direction and curation. The pipa melody was performed and recorded live by a human musician (the developer's wife); the surrounding arrangement was AI-assisted. Game design, writing, and code are human-authored with AI assistance. Localization into 17 languages was AI-assisted with human review. The game contains no live/runtime AI generation.