Game: Bad House (Demo)
Developer: Andrew Morrish
Publishers: The Arcade Crew · Dotemu
Genre: Auto-Battler Dungeon Crawler
Demo: Free — out now
Full Game: Early 2027
Platform: PC (Steam)
Steam Deck: Unknown
🏚️ These Are Demo Impressions
The full game isn’t out until early 2027. This piece covers the free demo, released today, which includes the first two levels of the basement and two of the game’s three playable characters. The score below is provisional — we’ll review the full release when it arrives.
Content note: the developer warns of frequent depictions of blood and gore, occasional body horror, and themes of violence and death.
🔑 Know this first: the demo is a complete little story, and it’s free. One player has already finished it with three different runs — and was surprised by how it ends. We won’t spoil it. Just go downstairs.
🏠 Property Listing — Partially Furnished
Spacious living area · Secure personal storage · Quiet neighbourhood · Basement access*
Previous tenants thoughtfully left behind knives, wands, amulets, rings, swords, shields and armour. You’re welcome to make use of everything.
* Basement access is not recommended. If you hear strange noises, it’s best to ignore them. Most people never come back up. Management is not responsible for any items abandoned in the basement.
⚖️ You Are the Next Previous Tenant
Bad House’s premise and its progression system turn out to be the same thing — and it’s a lovely piece of design.
You move into a house where the previous tenant left their things behind: weapons, amulets, armour, all yours to use. Then you go into the basement you were told to avoid, and you fight your way through it.
Upstairs, there’s a personal storage box. Anything valuable you find below can be brought back and stored for future tenants — the next character you play. Lose a run, and that stash is what carries forward.
In other words: you become the previous tenant. Every item you leave in storage is exactly what someone left for you when you first arrived. The fiction and the meta-progression are one loop — and once you notice it, the cheerful letting-agent copy starts to feel a lot less cheerful.
There’s just one condition: don’t go into the basement.
Bad House is an auto-battler dungeon crawler from developer Andrew Morrish, published by Dotemu and its indie label The Arcade Crew — the team behind games like Infernax, Blazing Chrome and Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider. The full game is due in early 2027, but a free demo is available now.
Our take: Bad House wraps an intriguing premise around solid auto-battler mechanics that keep you hooked. It’s worth buying if you enjoy strategic dungeon crawlers with atmosphere and mystery. On the strength of the demo, it’s one to wishlist.
What’s Down There
Combat is automatic — the strategy is in what you bring and how you build. You choose from upgradable skills and items to keep your tenant alive against the basement’s residents: demons, skeletons, bats, the undead, and plenty of things the listing describes only as “unidentified occupants.” The house asks that you respect their personal space whenever possible.
Basement access points are fragile and may not remain available once used, so every descent is a commitment. One player described the game as punishing if you underestimate a fight — but strategic in how you decide when to spend your items.
⚔️ Blake
Swaps between melee and magic. Your first tenant in the demo.
🩸 Rory
Blood magic and critical-hit bonuses. You’ll meet them as a co-tenant in the demo.
🗝️ Lou — Full Game
Hides in the shadows and poisons enemies. Not in the demo.
It Hooks You Fast
🔁 “An Addicting Game”
The early demo feedback is short but telling. One player finished the demo three times, with three different characters, and called it addictive. Another simply said they had a cool time with it.
That replayability comes from the storage loop. Every run, you’re deciding what’s worth carrying back upstairs, what to spend now, and what to stash for the next tenant. It turns a two-floor demo into something you want to run again.
Balance Notes From the Basement
🩸 What Needs Tuning
The demo is clearly still being balanced, and early players have spotted a few exploits worth fixing before launch:
1. Summoning is very strong. One player stacked summon skills and buffs and never felt threatened on their first full clear.
2. A blood-sacrifice tree can be farmed. Sacrificing health at a tree for a special fruit can be repeated endlessly — one player did it more than twenty times — because health potions are easy to come by. A cap, or scarcer potions, was suggested.
3. The economy is generous. Shop prices felt low, and keys and potions plentiful enough that one player could buy everything. Making common one-star items unsellable was one idea.
4. Some systems need clearer signposting. A player wasn’t sure which altar the floor bosses’ hearts were meant for.
None of this is unusual for a demo — and the fact that players are already theorycrafting around it says the build system has depth worth tuning.
Things to Know
📋 Before You Rent
• The demo is free, with the first two basement levels, Blake and Rory
• The full game launches in early 2027, with a third character, Lou
• Single-player, with Steam Cloud; the full game adds achievements and Family Sharing
• Ten languages (interface text)
• Five accessibility features listed
• Steam Deck compatibility unknown
• Very modest requirements — a GTX 660 or RX 560 and 8 GB of RAM
• The demo requires accepting a third-party EULA
• Blood, gore and body horror — see the content note above
The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
The Good
The Bad
The Ugly
Premise and Progression Are One LoopThe previous tenant left you their things; you leave yours for the next. The storage box makes the fiction and the meta-progression the same idea.
Summoner Builds Break ItStacked summons can make a run trivial. Expected in a demo, but it needs reining in.
The Ending Will Surprise YouOne player who finished it three times didn’t see it coming. We’ll leave it there — but go in prepared.
Wonderfully Sinister WritingEvery line of the store page reads like a letting agent quietly covering for something terrible in the basement. The tone is pitch perfect.
A Loose EconomyCheap shops and plentiful potions and keys meant one player could buy everything.
Some Signposting Is UnclearWhich altar do the boss hearts go to? At least one player couldn’t tell.
Instantly ReplayableThree full runs from one player already. Deciding what to stash for the next tenant keeps you going back down.
A Farmable Blood TreeEndless sacrifices for a special fruit, sustained by easy health potions.
—Nothing else so far.
The Verdict (For Now)
Bad House’s demo does what a demo should: it makes you want the full game. The premise is wickedly well written, the auto-battling has real strategic depth in how you build and when you spend, and the storage loop gives every run a purpose beyond itself.
Best of all is how neatly it ties together. You inherit the previous tenant’s things, and you leave yours for whoever comes next. It’s a meta-progression system that doubles as the horror — the realisation that the house has done this many times before, and will do it again.
The balance needs work — summoners are too strong, the economy too generous, and one blood-sacrifice tree too easy to abuse. But that’s what demos are for, and players are already engaging with the systems deeply enough to break them.
The honest read: download the free demo, ignore every warning, and go into the basement. Then wishlist it for early 2027.
I'm a passionate gamer and video game enthusiast. I find immense joy in creating detailed and insightful video game reviews, diving deep into different adventures anytime I can manage. But if there's one thing that truly gets my heart racing, it's the thrill of surviving zombie-infested landscapes. Join me on my gaming journey as I explore and share my thoughts on the undead-filled worlds of gaming! 🎮🧟♂️
