About This Demo

This demo contains the complete first world of Rune Runners, a colorful 3D action platformer for one or two players, made for playing together on one couch. In the Whispering Woods the rune torches have gone out and monsters have moved in. Four young mages, two brothers and two sisters, set out to light the torches again, open the portals and face the Slime King at the end of the woods.

Every level is made for two players on one screen. You light the torches together, keep each other safe, revive your partner when one of you goes down and step into the portal side by side. A few places need both of you at once. When nobody is around, every level can also be played alone with any mage.

Three difficulty settings, Relaxed, Normal and Heroic, can be changed at any time. A parent and a child can play together on Relaxed, while two experienced players will find a real challenge on Heroic.

Each mage has a spell of their own. Water pushes monsters back and puts out flames, fire burns thorn vines away, thunder jumps on to a second monster and charges pylons, and wind blows flying monsters back and spins wind fans. Some hidden places only open up to the right element, so it pays to look around with every mage.

Ten levels lead through the Whispering Woods. Planks break away under your feet, spiky chestnuts roll across the path, spiked beams spin and spike traps shoot up from the ground. A dead tree can be shot down so that it falls across the water as a bridge, a wind fan blows a raft over the pond, and two pressure plates open a treasure chest only when both of you stand on them. Slimes, big slimes and bees guard the rune torches.

At the end of the woods the Slime King waits in his arena. He hops after you and lands wherever his shadow falls, crashes down in a belly flop that sends out a wave of slime you have to jump over, and shoots slime across the arena in four directions. Later in the fight he splits off little slimes. Every attack is announced with shadows, circles or warning lanes, so you can always see what is coming.

Every level has three runes to earn: one for finishing it, one for beating every monster and one for getting through without a defeat. 17 rune shards are hidden in the Whispering Woods, some of them in places that only open up to the right element. Gold from monsters, pots and chests buys wand upgrades, potions, shields and extra hearts at the merchant's stall.

The demo also holds a bonus world, the Sunscorched Ruins: ten more levels with cactlings, scorpions and mummies, flying carpets and fire vents, and the Desert Golem at the end. The bonus world opens on the world map with a code that is shared on the Rune Runners Discord.

In the full game the journey goes on through the Crystal Caverns, the Frost Peaks, the Ember Caldera and the misty Gloomfen up to the Skyreach Citadel and into the Candy Kingdom: eight worlds with 80 levels and eight bosses in all. Add Rune Runners to your wishlist to hear when it comes out.

• 1–2 players in local co-op on one screen, or solo

• 4 playable mages with water, fire, thunder and wind spells

• The complete first world: 10 levels in the Whispering Woods, the last one against the Slime King

• A bonus world with 10 more levels and the Desert Golem, unlocked with a code

• 3 runes per level and 17 hidden rune shards, 16 more in the bonus world

• Relaxed, Normal and Heroic difficulty, switchable at any time

• Full controller support with Xbox, PlayStation and Switch button prompts, or keyboard

AI Generated Content Disclosure

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

Generation of marketing materials and concept art was supported by generative AI.