On Sunday, September 20, 2026—the second day of the public exhibition at the Tokyo Game Show 2026 (TGS2026)—a presentation revealing the latest information on the roguelike action game *Cinderia* was held on the event stage at Makuhari Messe.Xiao Yu, producer at developer MyACG Studio, and Hotpot, the game’s publisher, took the stage to announce the release date for the upcoming major update—a two-player co-op mode—as well as the new playable character “Xiaozi” and the roadmap leading up to the official release.
Set in a kingdom ravaged by a witch, this dark fantasy roguelike action game features four girls who combine their skills and equipment to battle.It launched in Early Access on Steam on March 30, 2026, and surpassed 100,000 copies sold within 10 days. As of September 22, it has over 4,700 Steam reviews, with 88% of them “Very Positive.”The stage was also part of a joint project between Game*Spark and the AUTOMATON editorial team, with Kosuke Miyazaki—head of Eido’s game media division—serving as MC and AUTOMATON editor Kei Aiuchi participating as a guest.
In this article, we’ll cover the content discussed during the approximately 50-minute stage event, in the order of live gameplay, developer talk, and the latest updates.
“It feels great to play with, and it’s fun to build”—Live gameplay taking on the Chapter 1 boss with Lou and Rivet
The first half of the stage featured a live gameplay demonstration by Hotpot, which also served as a brief introduction to the game. First, Koyu described the game as “a roguelike set in a dark fantasy world. It’s a game where you can freely combine the skills, items, and combat styles you acquire during your adventure, and since the items you obtain differ each time, your combat style changes significantly as well.“We hope players will enjoy both the satisfying action and the fun of strategizing their builds.”
In response to a question from Mr. Aiuchi—“As the number of skills increases, so does the number of buttons you need to use. Is it still accessible for roguelike beginners?”—Mr. Koyu replied, “It might feel a little difficult at first. But your character grows steadily throughout the game, and as you get used to the combinations, it becomes easier. Since this is a genre you’ll play repeatedly, I think it’s only difficult at the very beginning.”
There are currently four playable characters.They are “Roo,” a Little Red Riding Hood-style hunter who wields a knife; “Rivet,” a blonde engineer who carries a cannon; “Isdara,” a blue-eyed knight who wields a shield; and “Uma,” a princess who summons forest allies. According to Mr. Koame, Roo is “a fast, assassin-like character,”Rivet is “a character with many builds centered around cannon fire and bullets,” Isdara is “a character who uses a shield and moves a bit slowly,” and Uma is the type who “summons allies like wolves to fight alongside her.”According to Hotpot, each character has a completely independent action system—covering both melee and ranged combat—and with over 80 unique passive skills per character, “it’s not uncommon to be using completely different control schemes during the early, middle, and late stages of a single playthrough.”
The first character featured in the live gameplay demo was Lu. With the goal of defeating the Chapter 1 boss, Hotpot played the character while Mr. Uchii provided commentary from his own hands-on experience, explaining, “Attacking from behind grants a backstab advantage,” and “Depending on the skill, you can extend a chain to impale an enemy from a distance and instantly teleport to that location.”After each wave, players choose one passive ability from three options; along the way, they rescue NPCs to expand their base, go into stealth mode in the smoke, or hatch the “Demon’s Egg” item to create minions that fight alongside them.In the boss battle, they managed to defeat the boss despite their HP being whittled down to a critical level, and Hotpot made the audience laugh by saying, “It’s been about half a year since I last played, so my stamina is pretty much shot.”
The second character is Rivet. According to Hotpot, she’s a character who “looks like a ranged attacker but is actually quite strong in melee,” switching between melee attacks—where she strikes with the barrel of her gun—and long-range cannon fire.When the MC asked, “Why did you decide to have her punch with her gun?” Koame replied, “If it were only long-range attacks, there wouldn’t be much room to vary the playstyle. That’s why I made half of the build focused on melee combat.”As Mr. Aiuchi noted, “It’s fun that you can create builds that incorporate melee—like landing three hits before firing to trigger a three-hit combo”—he secured two consecutive victories with a primarily long-range build that included turrets, grenades, and time bombs.Mr. Aiuchi mentioned that his favorite move is Rivet’s “spinning” roll (evasion).
Mr. Koyu also revealed his thoughts on the random events that occur along the way: “I think they’re still a work in progress. Right now, they’re only implemented in Chapters 1 and 2, so I’d like to swap them out for various other events later on.”
“A Team That Builds Things as Soon as They Think of Them”—‘Cinderia,’ Which Began with Gameplay
The second half focused on development. In response to Mr. Aiuchi’s question, “What kind of idea did it start with?”, Mr. Koyu explained their gameplay-first development style: “It’s not so much an idea as it is that our team is pretty haphazard—we’re the kind of team that builds things as soon as we think of them. So it always starts with gameplay. We create ways for the characters to fight, test them, find what works, and then start building.”
Apparently, the game’s world setting changed significantly from the beginning. “At first, it was a story about fighting witches, and we started by taking inspiration from *Puella Magi Madoka Magica*. But as production progressed, the team members’ personal preferences started to influence the direction—some liked *Diablo*, others preferred a darker atmosphere, and the artists leaned toward an anime-style aesthetic. So it took quite a while to settle on everything,” he explained.When asked about the biggest challenge during development, he cited “differing demands across regions,” explaining, “Many Japanese players use a keyboard and mouse, which significantly changes the combat style compared to using a gamepad. In China, many players watch walkthroughs and competitive gameplay videos, and their control speed is fast. It was difficult to create a game that would please everyone across these different regions.”
Hotpot, who is in charge of localization during Early Access, commented on player reactions: “I’m deeply moved by the support we’ve received from many users in the Japanese, Korean, and German communities on Discord regarding localization. Even during TGS, we received support from someone who was working to introduce Japanese anime to Germany."Feedback from players is our greatest source of encouragement, so we’ll continue to do our best," he said, expressing his gratitude.
The next major update will be a 2-player co-op mode—testing begins in October, with implementation scheduled for November–December. A 4-player mode is also on the horizon.
Toward the end of the session, Hotpot began by saying, “I’ll now announce the latest information on ‘Cinderia,’” and a roughly 30-second video was shown. It depicted Lou and Rivet—who had been controlled individually until just moments ago—fighting together on the same screen. The next major update will be a “2-player co-op mode.”
According to Hotpot, the network infrastructure for multiplayer is already complete, and through Steam and the company’s own servers, two players will be able to enter a stage together and fight cooperatively. Servers in China and Japan are already operational, and players can experience the closed beta by joining the test channel on the official Discord.The slides featured the phrases “Two Players, One Adventure,” “More Enemies. Tougher Battles,” and “Help Your Partner and Overcome Challenges Together.” They highlighted the strategic interactions not found in solo play, such as discussing which items to buy in the shop, helping a fallen partner to move forward, and passing equipment to your partner.
While the schedule on the slides stated “Testing scheduled to begin in October; implementation scheduled for November–December,” Mr. Koame added, “Two-player mode will be available in test mode starting next month. We haven’t decided on an official release date yet, but we’d like to launch it in three months if possible. It will be ready by the end of this year at the latest.”
What’s interesting is that Mr. Koame spoke candidly about the impact of co-op play on game design. “The mechanics for two players fighting together are already complete, and it’s actually possible for four players as well. However, in-game events and such are still designed with single-player in mind. So, over the next three months or so, we want to incorporate designs suited for two-player play, such as item sharing and coordinated moves.“We haven’t decided on everything yet, but we’ll do our best.”When the MC expressed surprise, asking, “Are you going all the way up to four players?” he replied, “Ideally, four. But the screen would end up looking a bit like this (laughs),” using gestures to illustrate the chaos of four characters jostling on the screen. Hotpot also stated, “We’ll start with two-player co-op, but there’s a possibility we might expand to four players in the future.”
“Kozumi,” the new character who nearly didn’t make the cut—the first long-range specialist who fights using musical notes
When Mr. Aiuchi pointed out, “There was an unfamiliar girl with purple hair in the footage,” Mr. Koame laughed and acknowledged the existence of the new character, saying, “Did you notice her?”The name introduced in the slide was “Kozumi.” However, according to Ms. Koame, “She doesn’t have an official name yet; internally, we call her ‘Murasaki-chan.’” Furthermore, she explained, “This is a character who was originally scheduled to be cut from the game, but ended up making the cut,” revealing that she had nearly been scrapped.
She is a petite girl clad in a purple outfit and hood, and her theme is “music.” She uses a long-range attack that drops musical notes with a left-click and a charge-based long-range attack with a right-click.Meanwhile, Koame revealed that the character is still in the design phase, stating, “She’s a character who fights using two types of long-range attacks. Designing her around the theme of music is challenging, and we’re currently considering how much of a rhythm game-like element to incorporate.” He also noted that her exclusive passive skills and magic cards are at a stage where “we have to rework quite a few of them,” and that Koame and the development team are currently working on their design and balancing.
Roadmap—The “Heat” System, New Bosses, and the True Ending
Finally, a roadmap titled “The Future of ‘Cinderia’” was presented. To summarize Hotpot’s explanation, the details are as follows:
2-Player Co-op: Testing is scheduled to begin in October, with implementation planned for November–December. We’ll start with two players, with the possibility of expanding to four in the future.
New Bosses and Monsters: Around the same time as the co-op update, the “Heat” system—designed for high difficulty—will be updated to include new bosses, monsters, maps, and events. This is to ensure that long-time players can enjoy new challenges even when playing solo.
Implementation of the new character “Shouji”: We are currently designing and balancing her exclusive passive skills and magic cards.
World-Building and Story: In parallel with the design and balancing of the new playable character, we are enriching the character’s backstory and the “true ending.”
Mr. Koame mentioned the target release date, stating, “Since we’re currently in Early Access, players are primarily evaluating the gameplay and combat aspects. However, by the official release next March, I want to develop the scenario, world-building, and story in various ways. It’s not just that I want to—I’m already working on it—but since I need to gather feedback once it’s complete, I’m still working hard on it.”When asked by the MC, “Isn’t it difficult to incorporate a story into a roguelike?” he replied, “It is difficult. But I want to design it so that players can collect the characters’ stories and view them on their own within the game, rather than forcing them to watch them.” He explained this approach to storytelling, which is unique to roguelites.Hotpot also expressed his enthusiasm, saying, “The foundation for gameplay and combat is pretty much in place. From here, I want to properly shape this into a complete game.”
To wrap up the session, Mr. Uchii commented, “Since this is a game where you’ll often find yourself surrounded by enemies and bullet hell, we’ve been looking to expand the range of gameplay options. I’m especially looking forward to implementing multiplayer. Even during Early Access, we’ve rolled out several major updates adding new content, so there’s more and more to do.I hope you’ll play it as soon as possible before the official release—not only to help build up this indie game together with the players, but also to enjoy watching it grow.”Mr. Kogame expressed his gratitude to Japanese players, saying, “I’m truly grateful to all the players who have played ‘Cinderia,’ especially those in Japan. I use X quite a bit, and most of the feedback I’ve seen regarding ‘Cinderia’ has come from Japanese comments.”
It was a 50-minute session that clearly illustrated the “current state” of *Cinderia*, as the “build it as soon as we think of it” team expands into co-op play, new characters, and the story while taking feedback from Early Access.
*Cinderia* is currently available in Early Access for PC (Steam). The price is 2,000 yen (tax included).
