Have a Nice Death pairs repeatable solo runs with fast-paced combat, using a scythe alongside weapons and spells. The offer at Kinguin is ≈ $3.34; full controller support on Steam PC gives you another practical point when choosing how to play. Check that the available language suits you before deciding, then weigh the asking price against the appeal of another run through Death Inc.Steam’s $24.99 price is ≈ $21.65 lower than the comparable offer at Kinguin, giving you a direct price comparison for this solo game.
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Price History
Past 36 months · Updated daily
Historical Low~ $2.492025-04Current Low Across Stores~ $22.49IndieGala Storevs. Historical Low+803%
Prices cover Steam and 39 authorized stores; only legitimate offers are counted. The chart shows weekly market-wide lows and Steam's official price across the past 36 months.
01About Have a Nice Death
In Have a Nice Death, you play an overworked Death whose employees have thrown the balance of souls into disarray. Fight through Death Inc.’s procedurally generated departments with your scythe, taking on enemies and bosses as you learn from each run. Weapons and spells can be upgraded and combined to shape your combat approach.On Steam PC, 85%% of 9,746 player reviews are positive.
Credits
Developer
Magic Design Studios
Publisher
Arc Games
Steam player reviews
85%positiveVery Positive9,746 Steam reviews
Lowest recorded in 36 months
$2.492025-04-08 · IIndieGala StoreBase game · same records as the chart above; USD history, not a regional Steam low.
Language support
Language
Interface
Subtitles
Audio
Simplified Chinese
Yes
Yes
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Traditional Chinese
Yes
Yes
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English
Yes
Yes
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Show 8 more languages
Language
Interface
Subtitles
Audio
French
Yes
Yes
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Italian
Yes
Yes
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German
Yes
Yes
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Spanish
Yes
Yes
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Japanese
Yes
Yes
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Korean
Yes
Yes
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Portuguese-Brazil
Yes
Yes
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Russian
Yes
Yes
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Steam PC edition data · 2026-10-19
02Before you buy
Play style
The Steam PC version is designed for solo play and has full controller support.
Language
English is among the interface languages; English full audio is not listed.
03Frequently asked questions
What is the premise?
You play an overworked Death whose employees have disrupted the balance of souls, and fight them with your scythe.
How is the game structured?
It is a 2D action roguelike with procedurally generated departments, enemies, and bosses.
What happens after a run?
Each run ends with a performance review that unlocks items and upgrades to help you progress.
Popular Steam reviews
Native-language selection · 10 reviews
Selected helpful reviews in this language show both recommendations and criticisms. This selection does not represent the overall positive rating; opinions reflect the version reviewed.
RecommendedSteam player
This is one of the hardest games ever for me to decide whether I'd recommend it to someone or not.
The sense of style that this game oozes, the exceptional options menu, the charming and immersive music and character that this game has is some of the best in a 2d game. It just radiates character.
The moveset that Death uses is also absolutely amazing. It feels like playing mini simplified Devil May Cry because of quick combos that you can pull off and how many moves each weapon has. If this is enough to get you excited to play this game, it is probably gonna be a game that you'd enjoy at least to some extent.
But the issue comes from the fact that the strategies to deal with 90% of 'minion' enemies is to dash into their face while evading 1 attack and then hitting them. Once you hit them they are stunned and you just need to spam click or use a spell that is off cooldown and you are done. So all the amazing moves that you have at your disposal just come down to passing a dps check on a static enemy, and it completely shut down my will to play the game after I've realized that.
That being said, the game is reviewed overwhelmingly positive and even I love so many things about this game that I am so torn whether or not to recommend it.
If you resonate with what I've written here and you're someone who is a rogue like or character action enjoyer, I've made a more in-depth video because nobody (including me) will read a wall of text.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkTUJKpmyukShow moreShow less
9.5 hours at review395 people found this helpful
Written during Early Access
Not recommendedSteam player
EDIT 2: Okay I played more and I can confirm, 70% of my problem with the game is that the first few levels are slow and boring. This may not sound like an issue, but since you reset every time you die you're replaying these levels CONSTANTLY. Maybe there's some way to skip areas that I haven't yet discovered, but frankly even with that I don't see why the first few hours of playtime should be dominated with boredom. If this changes, my review will likely flip. This will be the last edit.
EDIT: I think my initial review wasn't charitable enough. Past the first boss, in the second area, even normal enemies start becoming pretty tricky, and they start feeling more like obstacles that make the platforming sections feel more meaningful (although they still feel ok at best). I think part of my initial objection was based on the fact that the enemies in the first area are so weak they might as well not be there; this, combined with the lack of reasons to explore, makes the first few floors super boring. I think if this can be addressed, the game would be much easier to recommend.
If you're currently on the fence about it, don't let my review discourage you too much - this is a very mild do not recommend. The characters and the setting and the art and the writing and the animation are all so ridiculously charming and fun that if that's enough for you, hey, go for it. That's what I did, lol.
INITIAL REVIEW: Hmmmmm this one's a toughy. It's eye-catching, no doubt, and the music/sound design is pretty good imo. Squeaking through boss fights with whatever slapdash build you pieced together this time is fun, as expected from a game like this. The combat isn't bad at all, I actually quite enjoy it. Your mileage may vary.
Controls are responsive and feel pretty good - the dash is snappy and there isn't a lot of end or input lag to your basic moves. The weapons that are in the game so far are also somewhat varied and change your gameplan to a moderate degree (although not drastically since your basic weapon will always be scythe).
The issue so far, really, is in the platforming design. Firstly, there really feels like there's no point to the traversal/platforming sections in between the challenge rooms and the bosses. There's simply nothing to find, so exploring feels like a chore. Now, I understand that this is early access, so this is subject to change, but it doesn't work in its current iteration. If they add more things to find in floors - maybe even glue them all together into one big floor so that we are forced to explore to find everything: great, that would solve it. If they remove the platforming sections and make every floor just an arena or boss fight: fantastic, I think that would be great too.
Beyond that, the game also currently does quite a bad job of telling you what anything does. Now, again, early access, yes, so I expect that this will be worked on, but take note. What does it mean to go to a vault? What do the little symbols and numbers next to each weapon mean? Figure it out yourself. I understand that some of these choices were made perhaps deliberately to keep the UI clean, but you can only sacrifice so much at the altar of looking slick before everyone starts getting confused.
I am looking forward to seeing how the game improves through EA, though, because my god is it pretty. Best of luck to the devs. It should be a crime to look this good.Show moreShow less
1.1 hours at review363 people found this helpful
Written during Early Access
RecommendedSteam player
A Message to the HAND Community and Potential Buyers
Alright I've had it up to here with this player-base's lack of common sense, Just go to recent reviews and you'll immediately see my point. You'll notice most talk about things that can be solved with simple common sense, but instead choose to make mute points to make a marvelous game look like the hottest piece of trash on the market. So let me spin my review on why this game is amazing for first month release.
For the shortest answer If you're too busy with your day, its a 8/10 maybe 7 ATM. For the more dedicated or simply curious individuals, here's the more in depth review.
OVERVIEW :
Have a Nice Death is a 2D-platforming Rougelite in which you take control over Death himself in managing his own company in the afterlife, known as Death inc. The game-play loop revolves around you navigating these 2D environments via exploration, combat, and the occasional Mini-Boss/Thanagers and Area Bosses/Sorrows. To aid you in all of this your good friend T. O'Shah (not even Death himself can escape mandatory OSHA inspections), who provides you with curses which are buffs that assist you throughout your journey to beat your employees back into submission. There are several different departments you'll navigate as you venture out through the company, ranging from the damp and odorous Pollution Department, To greasy and savory Toxic Food-Processing Department; HAND is sure to deliver some creative and diverse set-pieces for your eyes to enjoy.
Gameplay
While most who have 'played the game' in the negative section would call it slow and clunky, this cannot be further from the truth. The game allows for diverse methods of movement, be it with your invincible Dash or even through more creative means with your Up-Slash with your Scythe allowing almost instantaneous upward momentum. The game revolves around you not taking damage and actively aids in helping you do this easier through the curses, though a good portion don't seem to understand this and chalk it up to either bad design or "difficulty". Besides your Scythe which comes equipped with several different variations you may have the chance of encountering at the very beginning of each run, Death inc. supplies you with other tools such as Cloak weapons and Spells. The key difference between the 2 being that Cloak weapons are bound by a cool-down, while Spells are dependent on Mana conservation. They are also buffed more by the red 'Attack' portion of the tree while spells have their own green 'Spell' tree, with Blue being largely for healing and defense. While minor ATM due to the games fresh release, there are some creative ways the moveset interacts with your environment, such as using your form of healing (Anima) to unlock secret rooms which house special goodies ranging from MORE healing, to temporary buffs, to even legendary spells and weapons! All of your arsenal would be arbitrary if you didn't have some good enemy archetypes to knock some sense back into, luckily you don't get skimped out there either. The game provides a wide cast of not so employee of the month co-workers for you to smack around, all fitting their environment beautifully. Reaching the end of each part of a department allows you to take an elevator through to different parts of said department, each room having its own rewards, such as Cloak Stores having one Cloak weapon by the end of that segment, Anima deposit having Anima, and so on and so forth. The ending floor for each department contains the boss or Foreman for their respective part of the company, which provide a nice challenge and are plenty fun to duke it out with. The runs end when you either reach the final boss or you perish due to being overwhelmed by the power of even later common threats.
Characters/Humor
This section will be kept very brief seeing as how it's not a MASSIVE part of the game. Now I will fully go on record and say in bias that..I love almost every character in the game. They're all so unique and identifiable with all their own quirks and kinks. I will fully admit however that some of the humor can be a little dry or can fall flat, but that rarely happens. The side quests are all cute and creative if you choose to read the dialogue which unfortunately I don't even see most content creators for the game do.
Problems
Unfortunately, I can't just be bias and say the game is perfect as it is admittedly riddled with problems. To start, lets start with the more tame issues, some achievements and Side-stories are bugged in which they will be soft-locked and inaccessible for the save file as of the most current patch. The more major changes that should definitely be looked at is how the game is balanced. The skill tree feels like there isn't too much variety in how it powers you up, though they do make you notice the difference they add to your build via the power higher tier curses gives your current run. The base game feels a tad too easy, keep in mind I am currently on breakdown 9; however I am aware that after 10 it becomes exceedingly unfair when it comes to the difficulty spike, but not impossible if you don't have an OP build. All these things I expect to be fixed though seeing as the game has only been out for little over one singular month, yet people expect the world from a new developing team not used to creating games.
BIG NOTE : Single-handedly the biggest issue is ironically enough the Devs. I don't want to give them too much hate nor unneeded critique when as a whole they did great for a first release; however their willingness to change their games vision just to appease angry "fans" needs to be looked at and addressed. I am more then glad that they are so responsive and willing to make needed changes, but when you start say lowering the skill ceiling as well as the skill floor, you start to get a game that ends up being way too easy. For a Rougelite/Rougelike, that's a pretty blatant flaw that could cause even players who sink several hours into the game, could cause them to grow disinterested.
If any of the developers behind this game manage to be directed to this review and only need one take away from it let it be this. Cooperation and response to your fans is definitely important, but don't sacrifice the choices YOU want to make just because you hear certain individuals whining about problems that probably didn't even need fixing in the first place. Your community doesn't know what is the best way to develop YOUR OWN GAME. Take a page out of Hakita's book (developer of hit Indie: Ultrakill)
Conclusion :
There's so much more I could've gone on and on about, and arguably it could be for the better. But I simply wish to give you insight from someone who's played the game a good amount, and is looking from a perspective of a game in a very early stage of its life that can still change drastically if needed to. If I ever feel like making a follow up review or state of the game discussion, you will most likely find me in the game's Community Center. For potential buyers of the game, I must recommend it, it's cheap, fun, and a great game you can fit into your schedule with the shortest runs only lasting about half an hour. Finally to the people who have complaints like The secret boss takes my gear wahhhhhhh too hard waaaaaaah. You don't have to fight her every run bozos, just make a good Scythe/Defense build when you do go to fight her and whatever the hell you want for every other type of normal run. It's not a design-flaw, the only one here is you.
I hope you enjoyed this albeit not very in depth review of the game, but hopefully it should suffice and lead to more conversation and thinking about what's actually good for the game vs people who deter new players when they cant even beat Brad. -Icedragon64302Show moreShow less
33.5 hours at review222 people found this helpful
Not recommendedSteam player
Can't really recommend this in early access. The artstyle is great and the combat feels nice, but once you realize that killing enemies is pretty much worthless, the game turns into running from one elevator to the next until you get to the boss. Hopefully it will get better.
Also, if you hear someone say it's like a mix of Hollow Knight and Dead Cells and you're looking for metroidvania rather than rouge-lite, I'd skip it. Other than the cool art style it is nothing like Hollow Knight.Show moreShow less
2.5 hours at review124 people found this helpful
Written during Early Access
RecommendedSteam player
Think Hollow Knight meets Dead Cells but in an office building.Show moreShow less
0.2 hours at review185 people found this helpful
Written during Early Access
Not recommendedSteam player
I do hope this game gets better, but in it's current state I barely do not recommend this.
Art and music are alright, but the graphics seem to be made for 1080p, as they feel very scuffed on a 2k display. FPS also seems to be locked at 60, though I'm not too sure that's much of a problem. Enemy projectiles have an issue of blending in with the backgrounds, which makes avoiding them a little annoying sometimes.
The gameplay loop and style is very reminiscent of both Dead Cells and Hollow Knight, but falls short of what makes both masters in their category.
You can get locked into attacks, unlike in other similar games where you can cancel an attack midway if you need to dodge, which feels extremely bad due to enemies being a majority ranged. It's like a bullet hell where you have to stand still to attack enemies and just watch as you tank a shot or two.
Loadouts and build choices feel very... weak. Weapons/Spells other than your scythe almost always have a cooldown, mana cost, or ammo tied to them, sometimes multiple of those. This makes them feel like tools rather than alternate playstyles, and it really hinders the rougelike feel they are going for. You CAN upgrade your scythe into alternate versions, but the option to do so is entirely up to RNG via the handful of rooms you get to choose at the end of each level, and only occasionally comes up within the first set of levels. In Dead Cells, weapons feel like just that, WEAPONS. Each with their own attack pattern, strengths and weaknesses that you had to learn and master. Here they just feel like one-use damage bombs and that's it.
The Curse system, their passive buff/debuff building system, really feels negligible. They have very weak effects and don't feel very useful. A lot of them seem to be "Retaliate" based, which means they activate when you get hit. That's the one thing you DON'T want to do.
Healing is almost non-existent, and what is there feels really bad. The game utilizes a grey health system, where you can only restore a portion of your missing health rather than all of it. This can lead to situations where you have 3 charges of the built-in heal, but only a "max" recoverable health of say 25% your original max. The only way to regain health past this cap is to find RNG drops from enemies, shops and other sources which give "Pure Healing", and most of these options give you less than 25% health. This system feels like complete and utter ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. It would serve the game better if the game were more fleshed out like Dead Cells, where you have a choice limited amount of health potions but have other means of gaining health through the build and weapons of your choice alongside the rng drops.
Replayability, as far as I have discovered, is limited to just unlocking new weapons for new runs. No permanent buffs, no new inherent abilities, no feeling of getting stronger. You can use Souls gained throughout a run to upgrade your Scythe and additional weapons, but as soon as that run is over you lose all of those upgrades. It's hard to want to play a rougelike when they don't give the feeling of improvement with every run.Show moreShow less
2.3 hours at review120 people found this helpful
Written during Early Access
RecommendedSteam player
"An office is not for dying. An office is a place for living life to the fullest, to the max… an office is a place where dreams come true.
- Michael Scott" - Death, probably
At least that would be the case if the employees were doing their job. In Have a Nice Death, you play as Death, CEO & Co-Founder of Death, Inc., trying to knock your subordinates into doing their job. With all "The Office" inspired hilarity, Magic Design Studios managed to create a beautiful rogue-lite with fun combat and adorable characters.
Pros
+Combat is fast, smooth, and full of variety in playstyle.
+Artstyle & Animations are mostly achromatic masterpieces reminiscent of one of Tim Burton's works or something I'd find on Cartoon Network as a kid.
+Gameplay is simple and intuitive.
+Dialogue is pretty funny, with a few references to The Office as well (a personal favorite is the Office Manager lamenting you not buying anything as his trickle down economics fail without the flow of money).
+Character designs really fill out the world and setting (I've only had Pump Quinn for one day but if anything happened to them I would kill all of you).
+Soundtrack is perfect mix of haunting and playful.
+Devs released a clear roadmap and are receptive to community feedback for improvement.
+Progression is mostly skill and somewhat rng based, despite ingots allowing you to purchase new weapons and spells, dying doesn't help you as much as in other rogue-lites like Skul or Gunfire Reborn where you can get higher health or skills for example. This may be a positive or negative depending on your preferences.
Suggestions for Updates & Full Release
~Health is too scarce. For health being such a big mechanic of the genre, and the inability to heal past the gray bar, health should be able to be reached more frequently.
~Levels need more platforming variety. Although it's supposedly procedurally-generated, I've had several times where I'd go into a new floor and it would be the same layout.
~Dialogue should be added for immersion and longevity. It doesn't need to be Hades, but I've had a lot of repeat dialogue just within the first few runs.
~Achievements. Where are they? Essential for this type of game. Devs confirmed it for full release, but EA could use them to give those completionist goals to work towards. Hopefully the progress is at least being tracked in EA for those who don't want to redo everything.
~Enemies need more variety. Four enemy types, a mini-boss, and a boss per world is too little. Devs confirmed adding some bosses, but regular enemies are definitely also needed for longevity.
~There needs to be more to do in between runs to break up the repetitive gameplay. Spruce up the office? Get to know characters better? I don't know, but something is needed. There needs to be more to work towards imo.
~Results of past runs should be shown somewhere.
Most of my critiques are minor, and most are about extending replayability and preventing repetitiveness — which is perfectly normal for an Early Access title. Properly updated and this game could make its way into my favorites list easily.
Game is worth full price.
9.17/10Show moreShow less
7.6 hours at review170 people found this helpful
Written during Early Access
Not recommendedSteam player
Simply put, it is not ready to be released in early access.
Issues:
-Bland stages with nothing in them except the same 3 enemy types. Too many of them and too short.
-Each enemy needs to be hit like at least 5 times to die, which starts feeling too slow after the first run.
-Also you are kinda locked in the scythe and it is really rng if you can update it, cuz it requires a lot of resources and to have the needed luck to encounter the "control room" stage.
-Curses, took inspiration from Hades and that is okay and nice, but receiving them feels kinda inconsistent, badly balanced and slow. Example get 1hp every time you are hit vs gain +5 scythe dmg-->With the current healing system getting hp every time you are hit is pain, unless you have a lifesteal curse maybe.
-Having two more weapons than you average dead cells run is also fine, but they do not spawn outside of certain floors and it is really lame that in those specific stages only one weapon can be taken-->>Like come on how boring is this.
-Healing system is really badly designed-either remove it or rework it completely.
-No exploration element for a game tagged with "Metroidvania"-->>Funny.
-Food -->> don't really see the point of it existing
Good parts:
-Bosses kinda are unique, unlike the enemies that stand in the stages before them.
-Art style is great 10/10.
-Cool idea for the plot.
Conclusion:
Currently it is quite bad and repetitive, overall boring.
Definitely has potential tho.
Suggestions:
-Instead of a world consisting of completely useless stages, a meaningless mini-boss and one or possibly if you are lucky two useful stages. This will also fix the nonexistent exploration(depends on how you handle level generation).
-Implement more scythe variations to start with.
-Re-balance the curses system, buff the useless curses, make the npc spawn more frequently.
-Weapon upgrades- add it to the game, cuz currently i see only "switching" the scythe variant as an upgrade, everything else is worthless because you have to pile up kills which is boring and kinda pointless.
-Healing-remove/rework
-Stop using the excuse "game is balanced and focused around combat", combat is not fun.Show moreShow less
3.2 hours at review116 people found this helpful
Written during Early Access
RecommendedSteam player
Old school gaming. Start with nothing, battle till you die, check your end game stats. Do it again. No quarters involved.Show moreShow less
27.5 hours at review159 people found this helpful
Written during Early Access
Not recommendedSteam player
Great graphics, love the flair, the narrative and the humor of the game, and that's about it.
Some curses are still broken, some weapons are still not working as intended, the RNG and the balancing is one of the worst I've seen in a game like this. You can steamroll entire levels by killing everything offscreen with the press of a button without bothering to dodge, or you can spend an entire run looking for something that will help you deal some damage to avoid spending 5 minutes on a boss that will ultimately kill you because of half-asses hitboxes. Neither feel good. The game needs a LOT of work still.Show moreShow less
71.4 hours at review110 people found this helpful
Written during Early Access
Source: original Steam user reviews. Helpful votes are an archived snapshot, not live data. Last collected: 08/15/2026.
