Press kit

Sunless Grove is a six-minute action roguelike in a Slavic dark tale, for iPhone and Android, by Owlnight Studio — a one-person studio in Kyiv. Everything on this page may be used in coverage of the game; the zip has it all.

In one paragraph

The sun did not rise over the Borderland. Walkers go into the night to find out why — and come back, most of the time. Sunless Grove is a roguelike built for a phone held in one hand: a joystick and auto-aim carry the fight, a skill, a dash and an ultimate wait for the other thumb. A run is one night — three stages, a master of the night at the end — and takes six to eight minutes. Between runs there is the fire: the Sunwheel of talents, Baba Yaga's shop, a daily challenge and three roads deeper into the dark. Three heroes — Mavka, the grove witch; Volkhv, priest of the broken sun; Kovach, the ironsmith — each play differently, and sixty upgrades and ten charms make sure no two nights weave the same.

In one line

A six-minute roguelike in a Slavic dark tale: one thumb, three heroes with a temper, a night that does not end.

What is in it

• Three heroes with their own weapons, dashes and ultimates; mastery ranks per hero.
• Three biomes — the Burnt Fields, the Drowned Bog, the Bone Hall — each ruled by a master of the night: Zmey Gorynych, Viy, Koschei the Deathless.
• Sixty upgrades carrying fifteen marks — fire, poison, roots, lightning, dash and more; three threads of one mark weave into one of ten charms that change how the hero plays.
• Runs of six to eight minutes with a fixed structure: three stages, events at the crossroads, a boss.
• Between runs: the Sunwheel (talents), relics, a daily challenge with a weekly leaderboard, the depth ladder for those who want it harder.
• Pixel art with a hand-picked palette, its own music for every biome, a Ukrainian and Russian localisation alongside English.
• Free to play; optional rewarded videos (revive, double souls, reroll, chest), a No Ads purchase, sun-shard packs and a season pass. No energy, no loot boxes, no gacha.

About the studio

Owlnight Studio is Oleksandr Shaniuk, an individual developer in Kyiv, Ukraine, making games for phones with a small budget and a long list of things mobile games usually get wrong. Sunless Grove is the studio's first title. The art direction leans on Ukrainian and wider Slavic folklore — mavkas, the Nav, Kupala fires, rushnyk embroidery — read as a dark tale rather than a history lesson.

Contact

Interviews, review builds (TestFlight / Google Play), assets in other sizes: hello@owlnightstudio.com. Please mention the outlet and the deadline; we answer within two working days.