Ex Sanguis, the next tactics RPG from the makers of Othercide, hits early access on 10 September — demo out now

Lightbulb Crew, the studio behind the cult XCOM-style tactics RPG Othercide, has announced that their next game Ex Sanguis launches into early access on 10 September. A playable demo is live on Steam right now.

Ex Sanguis carries over a lot of Othercide's DNA — porcelain-skinned warrior women, grotesque metaphysical battlefields, and a heavy emphasis on initiative and turn order over brute attrition. The setting pits you against the forces of Stasis, which are bleaching a world of stone and flesh dry, and you lead elite warriors called the Stillae — born from the blood of a divine maternal figure called the Mater. Abilities lean hard into spatial manipulation: a basic shove launches enemies four squares back, a Magnetic Pulse pulls distant foes in while blasting nearby ones away, and the battlefield itself is littered with volatile terrain like exploding blood blisters that reward enemies being kicked directly into them. The character order bar from Othercide returns, along with skills that speed up or slow down characters in the queue — the kind of clock-manipulation that the developer's previous game used to let outnumbered players dismantle larger enemy groups through interrupts, reaction abilities, and delayed attacks.

Othercide built a dedicated following when it launched in 2020 for its punishing difficulty and striking black-and-red visual style, though it was a fairly linear campaign structure. Ex Sanguis shifts to a roguelite format: characters pick from three abilities on level-up, and missions are laid out on a world map with harder encounters toward the edges. Players can chase boss fights early, grind resources to improve their odds, or take on high-risk side missions for bigger rewards — a structure that should give runs more variety than Othercide's more rigid progression.

The demo is the fastest way to judge whether the spatial chaos of shoving enemies into boiling terrain hazards holds up as a core loop. Early access kicks off 10 September.