Press kit

Alleymental

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Developer: Gameshlok Studio, Toronto, Canada
Publisher: Gameshlok Studio
Release date: Coming soon
Platform: Windows (Steam)
Genre: 2D action Metroidvania
Players: Single-player, controller recommended
Languages: English
Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/2526590
Press contact: alley@gameshlok.com

Description

Alleymental is a hand-drawn, story-rich 2D action Metroidvania set in Astrapunk India. The old elemental myths never faded here. They fused with the city's wiring, and now the elements run through all of it, and through you.

You fight, defend, move, and unlock the world with the elements, and you switch between them in the middle of a combo. Open with fire from across the room, switch to water as they close in to slow them, then meet the counter on earth, all one unbroken chain. The elements don't counter each other like rock-paper-scissors. They cycle and balance, so a fight is about momentum, and stalling gets you hurt.

Alley is a street kid who fights with the Elemental Shroud, a relic his parents built and died protecting. When the closest thing he has to family goes missing, the search drags him into everything Astrapunk India and its old powers have been hiding.

History

Gameshlok Studio was incorporated in Toronto in 2022 by Rohan Poundarik and Aniruddh Shukla. An early version of Alleymental appeared in Ask Gamedev's 2022 Pitch Showcase. In November 2024 the studio was one of 40 finalists, chosen from more than 200 entries, in the Indie 40 programme at the India Game Developer Conference in Hyderabad, where the founders pitched the game on stage. The Steam page went live in June 2026.

Features

Free-flow combat across five elemental weapons, switched mid-combo, ranged and melee, each with a charged special
Elemental defense: block, parry, deflect, absorb, or blink
Heat builds as you press the attack and cashes out in a burst
Traversal powers that double as keys to a locked world
Hidden elemental fusions to discover, two or more at a time
A skill tree to upgrade every weapon and ability
Permanent world changes: beat a guardian and the place it held transforms for good
A hand-drawn Astrapunk India on a living day-night cycle