It's been a full year of development for a co-op action roguelike on Steam Early Access. by the windDead Cells creator Motion Twin says work is still going great, and the team is already thinking about DLC and updates that could follow the 2026 1.0 release.
“The plan was to make a game bigger than Dead Cells,” says designer Thomas Wasser. “This is a dream plan. And we really wanted to make a new IP to maybe have a different kind of experience, even if it's also a roguelike. And maybe Dead Cells was very difficult to have some players who don't know roguelites. We had a lot of players who had difficulty with this kind of genre, and with Windblown that's really what we wanted to do, a game that's easier to get into.”
As demonstrated by the Cherry team With Hollow Knight: Silk SongOne difficult part in a fun development cycle is knowing when to call it good. As for Windblown, Motion Twin must decide when it will be ready for version 1.0. On that front, Wasser said one sign could be “the work we're doing now on this story.”
“History determines how many biomes, bosses, [and] “I would say history helps, but the truth is we feel when the game is ready. We didn't plan for a 1.0 version of Dead Cells. We just need time to get everything done. And now, after a year of early access, we know how long it will take to create a new biome, a new boss, etc. So now it's easy to know: OK, next year will be the launch year for version 1.0.”
Looking ahead, Berthier says it would be great to continue working on Windblown after version 1.0 launches, but the team is focused on getting it out of early access properly. Motion Twin also needs to prepare ahead of planned console releases.
“In terms of updates and maybe future DLC, yes, if the game actually works, we would love it,” Berthier says. “We already have ideas. But right now we want to make sure that 1.0 itself is a really, really good game. And she's not like people on day one, they won't feel like she's missing any part or that she's a smaller version of what she should be. It has to be really great, complete, polished and really, I would say, fair to the player so that they know that what they got is something great. And then we'll see if we add more content.
“The problem is that if you try to think too much about the future, everything will actually be theoretical,” he continues. “I'd rather work on something more specific. That's what we're doing right now. What is the content of version 1.0 and why is this ending amazing? Why will the player get some kind of emotion. Why will they continue to play? Is the game still interesting? Storywise, emotionally and logically, or even the in-game experience after one, two, three, four hours, 20 hours of gameplay and so on.
“I think that's our main goal at the moment and that should be our main focus because that's the core of the game. And then if it's good, then we'll have an open panel to do more things, and maybe one day we'll make another game. Let's see. We talked about this [for] for many years, but Windblown deserves a lot of love for a very long time.”
