Nested
A hero surrounded by a thousand enemies on a crossroads between lakes
In development · working title

Nested

An isometric 3D survivors-like where you don't pick upgrades from a menu — you wire them. Plug one skill into another, let it fire a third, loop it back on itself, and watch a single cast turn into a storm.

What makes it different

Skills are a circuit

Every skill has two hooks: on hit and on expire. Plug a whole skill into either one, with its own modifiers and its own hooks. There is no depth limit.

Recursion

A Recursion node fires a skill higher up the chain again. A missed shot shoots again; an explosion explodes again. Rarity decides how often, Echo modifiers decide how deep.

Rarity without a ceiling

Common, rare, epic, legendary, mythic — then mythic +1, +2 and on. Merge three equal items into one higher. Nested skills fire by chance, and rarity raises it, so a long chain has to be earned.

Enemies learn

Your three best skills in the final wave become the enemies' immunities next time: armor, toughness, full immunity — even hits that heal. Win too easily and you'll have to rebuild.

Bosses you can't one-shot

One boss, then two, then three. Damage per second is capped, area strikes are telegraphed, and a run only ends when the last boss falls.

Thousands on screen

Up to 4,000 enemies and tens of thousands of projectiles at once. The game measures your device and picks a projectile budget that keeps it smooth.

A new island every run

Tiered cliffs, water, forests, roads down to the shore. Hold out against a rising stream, or clear camps wave by wave and loot their chests.

PC, phone, gamepad

Mouse and keyboard, a gamepad in every menu, or two thumbs on a phone with floating sticks. The same game everywhere.

How a build works

✨ Sparks · mythic  [ring] [multiply]
└─ on hit
   ├─ 💥 Blast · epic  [size] [ignite]
   │  └─ on hit → 🔻 Shard  [homing]
   │     └─ on expire → ♾️ Recursion
   │           2 levels up: Blast again
   └─ ⚡ Lightning  [size]
  1. Everything drops from enemies. Skills, modifiers, gear. Each of five heroes starts with just one skill and one modifier.
  2. Open the forge — the game pauses. Drop a skill into another skill's hook, fill its sockets with modifiers: more copies, homing, spirals, fire, frost.
  3. Read the chain. Every flash on screen traces back to one line of your tree, so you always know what to change next.
  4. Survive the run. Fifteen minutes and three boss waves. Win, and the next node on the campaign map gets harder — and the enemies remember what hurt them.

Screenshots

A massive fire explosion tearing through a dense column of enemies
One nested cast against the crowd.

Status

In developmentPlaytesting with a small group
Demo — 2027Planned for Steam Next Fest
PC · MobileMouse and keyboard, gamepad, touch