When Geoff Keighley teased a new game from Ron Gilbert debuting at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2025, I was absolutely thrilled at the prospect of a brand-new game from the legendary developer behind Monkey Island and other point-and-click classics. When that new title was revealed as a roguelike under the title Death By Scrolling, I was substantially less thrilled, but the trailer looks fun enough that I'm trying to keep an open mind.
Death By Scrolling is a roguelike RPG where the world constantly scrolls upward. It superficially resembles a Zelda game, with its top-down perspective and classic pixel art, but the emphasis is very much on survival, gathering coins in endless levels, and putting those rewards to work on new upgrades to make the next run just a bit easier.
Time will tell if Death By Scrolling can stand up in the crowded action-roguelike genre, but the trailer shows enough retro charm to have me intrigued. A good aesthetic goes a long way toward making repeated roguelike runs worth enduring, and the snappy action looks similarly appealing.
Of course, as a longtime Monkey Island fan, it's not exactly the game I would've hoped for from Gilbert, but it does seem to be the game he wants to make. Prior to this big announcement, he had previously discussed the development of Death By Scrolling on his blog earlier this year.
This project was in early development as far back as 2019, but got sidelined in favor of Return to Monkey Island. Gilbert also worked on a big action-RPG in the classic Zelda style after the Monkey Island comeback's release, but with the small team he was working with, "it became obvious that my vision for the game was never going to get done." The solution? Take the work on the RPG and bring it back to the 2019 project, blending them together into Death By Scrolling.
"It’s not going to be everybody’s cup of tea," Gilbert admits, "but Elissa [Black, designer] and I get lost in playing it when we should be testing a new feature, so I guess that’s good." That's the first step toward a great roguelike, and while I'd take a fresh point-and-click adventure over a roguelike 99 times out of 100, I've got some hope that Death By Scrolling might be one of the few roguelikes that pierces my narrative gaming heart.
Follow us for more as the Gamescom 2025 schedule rolls on, and be sure you know how to watch The Future Games Show for more new gaming announcements.
