SYSTEM ONLINE // v4.5.1

ALASTIS // DEV

INDUSTRIAL GAME SYSTEMS

Solo indie studio. Dark fantasy games engineered on Windows and Android. One person, line by line.

// NO ADS — NO IN-APP PURCHASES — EVER
▶ MICROSOFT STORE ▶ GOOGLE PLAY
// ALASTIS_DEV CORE_TERMINAL
[OK] Shadow Blocks — LIVE // WINDOWS + ANDROID
[OK] Shadow Slash — LIVE
[OK] Shadow Raid — IN_PRODUCTION // GODOT_4
[OK] Operation Shadow — PLANNED
ADS: 0 // IAP: 0 // STATUS: PRODUCTION
About the Studio

SOLO DEVELOPMENT // SUNDERLAND, UK

A/D
Alastis Dev is a one-person indie studio building dark fantasy games with engineering precision. Founded by Marek Banas — self-taught developer based in Sunderland, UK. Every game ships with no ads and no in-app purchases — you either get it free or you buy it once, and that's the end of it. The mission: prove that limitations breed creativity, and that games can respect your attention instead of farming it.
Project Portfolio

3 ACTIVE PROJECTS // 1 PLANNED HIT

Shadow Blocks
// SHADOW_BLOCKS_v4.5.1
LIVE // WINDOWS + ANDROID
Shadow Blocks

Match-3 puzzle wrapped in cinematic dark fantasy. 80 handcrafted levels across 8 atmospheric biomes with animated 4K backgrounds. Tells a wordless story of escape from a cursed castle. No banners, no pop-ups, nothing to buy.

FREE ZERO ADS ZERO IAP MATCH-3 WINDOWS ANDROID 80 LEVELS 8 BIOMES 6 LANGUAGES
COMPLETION100%
Shadow Slash
// SHADOW_SLASH_v1.0.0
⚡ LIVE IN SHADOW BLOCKS
Shadow Slash

Skill-based mini-game built into Shadow Blocks. Slash falling gem blocks before they hit the ground. Avoid the cursed skull — one wrong cut ends your run. Same speed on every device, so the global TOP 100 actually means something.

MINI-GAME SKILL LEADERBOARD GLOBAL
STATUSLIVE
Shadow Raid Boss
// SHADOW_RAID_v0.3.0
IN PRODUCTION // GODOT 4
Shadow Raid

Top-down vertical space shooter. Your fuel tank carries over between levels, so an act is one continuous run — every barrel you skip in level three is fuel you won't have at the boss. Rebuilt from the ground up in Godot 4. Act 1 playable end to end and testing on Android.

ZERO ADS ZERO IAP SHOOTER SCI-FI GODOT 4 VERTICAL 5 ACTS
DEVELOPMENT40%
8 Biomes / 80 Levels

ESCAPE FROM THE CURSED CASTLE // 4K ANIMATED BACKGROUNDS

Prison
PRISON
LEVELS 1-10
Dungeon
DUNGEON
LEVELS 11-20
Grave
GRAVE
LEVELS 21-30
Torture Chamber
TORTURE CHAMBER
LEVELS 31-40
Corridor
CORRIDOR
LEVELS 41-50
King Skeleton
KING SKELETON
LEVELS 51-60 // BOSS
Bridge
BRIDGE
LEVELS 61-70
Desert
DESERT
LEVELS 71-80
From the Devlog

BEHIND THE SCENES // SOLO INDIE DEVELOPMENT

I Stopped Trusting “Complete” and Replayed All Seven Levels

Seven levels existed. That did not mean they were tested, balanced or ready to ship. I replayed every Act 1 mission and fixed what the old status missed.

READ_FULL_POST →

Porting to Godot Found Three Bugs I'd Never Have Seen

Moving Shadow Raid from GameMaker to Godot 4 surfaced three balance bugs that had been hiding in the build for months. None of them crashed anything.

READ_FULL_POST →

I Deleted Every Ad From My Game — 28,656 Lines Gone

People installed Shadow Blocks and never played it. So I removed every ad — then Google blocked the release because I didn't have ads.

READ_FULL_POST →
VIEW_ALL_POSTS →
Send Feedback

BUGS // IDEAS // JUST SAY HI

⚠ EMERGENCY BROADCAST ⚠

DEV TRAPPED
IN CODING HELL

EACH COFFEE UNLOCKS ONE HOUR OF ESCAPE
No ads, no IAP, no loot boxes. This link is the entire business model.
☕ SEND COFFEE
Global Leaderboard

TOP 100 // SHADOW SLASH // ALL TIME

⚡ SHADOW SLASH // TOP 100
LIVE DATA
// CONNECTING TO DATABASE...
Roadmap

WHERE WE ARE // WHERE WE'RE GOING

NOW
◆
Shadow Blocks v4.5.1 — LIVE ON TWO PLATFORMS
Microsoft Store and Google Play. Every ad and in-app purchase stripped out — 28,656 lines deleted. Free, and it stays that way.
NOW
⚡
Shadow Slash — Mini-game LIVE
Skill-based slasher with global TOP 100 leaderboard. Built into Shadow Blocks. Frame-rate independent, so every player competes on equal terms.
NEXT
🛸
Shadow Raid — In Production // Godot 4
Top-down vertical shooter, five-act campaign. Rebuilt from GameMaker in Godot 4. Act 1 playable end to end and testing on Android. It ships when it's good, not when a calendar says so.
LATER
🎮
Operation: Shadow — 2D Action Platformer
Story-driven platformer inspired by Code Name: Viper. Dark themes, dramatic narrative. The future flagship.
FUTURE
▣
Reign of Shadows — Dark Action RPG
Top-down action RPG in the Diablo tradition. Story-rich, ambitious scope. Details when ready.
The Machine Under the Hood

PRECISION ENGINEERING // MOBILE-FIRST DESIGN

// ENGINES
Two Engines, One Studio
Shadow Blocks runs on GameMaker Studio 2 in pure GML. Shadow Raid is built in Godot 4 with GDScript. Right tool per project.
// FORMAT
9:16 Native
Portrait-first development. One-handed mobile play. Ergonomic controls.
// EFFICIENCY
Eco-Logic Coding
Subtractive rendering. Minimal thermal output. Maximum battery life. Optimized for OLED.
// TIMING
Frame-Rate Independent
Delta-time movement. Identical speed on a 30 FPS phone and a 165 Hz PC. Fair leaderboards.
Tools I Use

BATTLE-TESTED // WHAT POWERS ALASTIS DEV

// ENGINE
GameMaker Studio 2
Shadow Blocks
Pure GML, fast iteration, mobile-first. Where the studio started.
// ENGINE
Godot 4
Shadow Raid
GDScript, scene-based architecture, data-driven levels. Open source.
// BACKEND
Firebase
Realtime Database
Powers the global leaderboard. Free tier, zero downtime.
// HOSTING
GitHub Pages
Static Hosting
This site lives here. Free, fast, version-controlled.
// GRAPHICS
Photopea
Image Editor
Free Photoshop alternative. Sprites, UI, marketing assets.
// MOBILE
Android Studio
SDK & Device Testing
Build tools, signing, and deployment straight to a real phone.
Credits & Contact

REACH OUT // FOLLOW THE BUILD

// FOUNDER
Marek Banas
// STUDIO
Alastis Dev
// FOUNDED
2026 — Sunderland, UK
// FIRST RELEASE
Shadow Blocks (2026)
// SUPPORT
// DEDICATED_TO
For my wife Judyta — the steady ground beneath every line of code.
And for my two boys, Erick and Brandon — who teach me every day what determination really means.
— Marek
☕ COFFEE? 💬 FEEDBACK?