Psyche'd Out

Psyche'd Out is a 2D Souls-Like game that pits you against a single, super tough enemy. After every time you die, however, you gain currency based on the damage you dealt that attempt, giving you upgrades to buy specifically for your next attempt. This lets you get progressively stronger with each and every attempt you do to defeat the boss. 

You play as Synara, a synapse warrior residing within a brain, which has fallen victim to a virus. Upon falling into the cerebellum, Synara must stop this mysterious intruder. However, every time they have fallen, it all mysteriously seems to have been a dream... A refreshing one at that. With every relapse making them stronger, Synara must work to stop this constant cycle of dreaming and overcome their failures. 

Psyche'd Out was created by a team of 12 people at ACM GameBuilders, a student game studio at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It is heavily inspired by Dark Souls and other games that took influence from it, such as Hollow Knight. Work on this project took place between February 2025 and May 2025. 

This project is one of three games that represent the sixth effort by the studio to create a released game, the others being Project FIFO and Lang Game. Continuing the same shift to structure with multiple teams, we're proud of the work we put in as well as the efforts that the other teams have also put in. The future of GameBuilders continues to look as bright as ever!

Check out other GameBuilders projects here!

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