- Eastern Martial Artists Week: Demo open for the week! - 24 July 2026
We have opened the demo for Eastern Martial Artists week! We have implemented some of the changes, alot is currently still adjusting (so a small WIP note). We wanted to share with you the direciton we are taking and hope to get your feedback!
- What we are changing! Demo 3 Ends - 26 June 2026
Thank you so much to everyone in the Steam forums and our Discord. We heard your feedback and already have begun changes! Perfect Dodge / Perfect ParryWe are implenting perfect dodge! Executing a perfect dodge will give you a beautiful slow mo time frame for you to combo attack. When you dodge in the exact window (dodge roll) you are given small i-frames as well. With a perfect parry you are given bonus time and hit-stun if you can perfectly time the parry - rewarding the risky attacks!Contact DamageWe heard you out. Contact damage needs to go. We will be giving this as an option for players and it will be default off. If people want the challenge, we have added it as an option all togetherSoul ReclaimA special new mechanic: you are given a chance on replay to reclaim your soul and gain a temporary bonus if you can get back in time. Parry ProjectilesReward for the perfect parry? Some pr…
- Demo 3 is out now! - 12 June 2026
Firstly THANK YOU SO MUCH! Community FeedbackThank you so much for your feedback. We want to improve Torii with you and the recent feedback from Demo 2 has been incredible. We've been reading and adjusting based on your thoughts (especially about combat and contact damage). The changes have begun, and although not completed in Demo 3, it's definitely happening. Please keep helping us improve, we are welcoming all your thoughts! Secondly, we are really happy to announe that Demo 3 is available now! What to expect:GATE 3 is here!Explore the new realm and continue where you left offNew Bosses and... friend?New bosses and more into the story of Torii... what awaits Torii only you will find out...Who is that?Improvements on combat flow, animations and combatWe are listening and want to make an amazing game ofr you not just visually but mechanicallyMore Dharma!Change your spec and try differe…
- Design Notes #1 Expanding the Dharma Tree - 6 June 2026
Hello Spirit Realm explorers!For those playing Demo 2 (or the current one as of this post) you will notice that the Dharma tree only had a few abilities on it. We are expanding this out (the end game you can expect it to be much larger!) with far more nodes and more elements. Demo 2 had only 4 elements with 1 node each, Demo 3 will have 6 elements and 3 nodes each! (Not final, and expect more crazy and cooler Dharmas). This is the new iteration to expect in Demo 3. We are now slowly adding in the "game changing" Dharma. Below is one of the testers show casing some of the Dharma stacked like crazy (for Demo 3 we will be giving you some Dharma to try out from the get go.Unlocking Dharma at ShrinesFor those who were wondering how to unlock Dharma, when you get to the Inner Reality don't forget to talk to the guide! You will also notice that Orbs are no longer present in Demo 3. It took a l…
- New Trailer for Torii Beyond The Gates - 25 May 2026
Thank you to everyone over in Reddit who gave us feedback on our new trailer direction.We are really proud of the teams art and we felt that we wanted to share the love and attention to detail we put into drawing everything hand by hand. We remade the trailer with emphasis on the sketching process we have and then how it becomes the art into the full game. We would love your feedback!We also wanted to show you the new trailer but also some other sketches and concepts! Here is Sensei. You meet him early on in your adventures in the Torii: Beyond The Gates. When will you meet him again? Who knows Some characters you meet (You know Zari if you have been following our posts!). And finally....A sneak peek at the Jurojin temple. This is to show you how we plan the puzzles, the boss fights and how we see the obstacles and traps. We then translate that into the art and also the boss fight mecha…
- Dev Log #5 Zari the Cartographer - 12 May 2026
"The stars are too far and the sewers are too dark, but a scrap of paper with the right lines is a light all its own." - Zari the CartographerHello fellow Torii-ans! Today we want to introduce Zari the Cartographer, someone who scurried their way in after the first demo. If you played the first demo you will not have encountered Zari (he likely was visiting another gate trying to add to his map!).You can encounter Zari within the Kinnara gate.Zari the CartographerZari the Cartographer is a lover of maps. He had learned during his travels (from Bishamon) that a great map exists which can only be bestowed upon the person to map the entire Spirit Realm. This map, is known as the Golden Parchment of the Spirit Realm. It is said that the Parchment's location revealed once a complete map of the spirit realm is made. What is in the Golden Parchment, no one knows. Legends have it that the Parch…
- Dev Log #4 Ebisu - Animation and Design - 5 May 2026
"Most seek the god of luck at the end of a hook, but the wise know that true fortune must be tracked through the deep thickets of fate." Who is Ebisu?Ebisu harvests luck from the Spirit Realm to give to the mortal world though deeds and actions. Ebisu stands tall and calm, and emerges from the morning mist. Like luck itself, Ebisu arrives quietly and with great dignity. Ebisu represents resilience - the antlers regrow and so can wealth. The bridge, as Ebisu can travel to places where mortals cannot, providing the link between the realms, and fortune with a peaceful life that is balanced with nature. Attack Concepts We wanted to use the Antlers as a core concept to the swinging attacks and charges. Above is the sketch attack concept, below is a render as we begin to animate Ebisu in all his attack forms. We want to also add a few variations on the attack patterns. Up, down and full attac…
- Dev Log #3 Who is Seimei? - 29 April 2026
The 2nd Demo of Torii: Beyond the Gates demo is out it's time to introduce some of our characters. The first charatcer we want to introduce is Seimei, who is the first adventurer to join us in the Hane-fu Village.Who is Seimei? Seimei is the suit of the 'Pentacle,' the flying guardian of Hane-fu Village and a formidable warrior in his own right. He dreams of grand adventures and making new allies in unlikely places. The Hane-fu Village the village of birdfolk in the Kinnara Gate. The home of Seimei, often plagued by local bandits and nuisances who are avoiding getting too close to Strength's territory. The PentacleSeimei protects the village of Hane-fu and provides the foundations of the village by protecting the birds. Upon meeting Torii, Seimei prioritises to protect and immediately seeks the help of Torii to find the source of the problem in Hane-fu. At the core of Seimei and his 'pe…
- WIP Dev Log #2 Map Design of Gate 3 - 22 April 2026
With the 2nd Demo of Torii: Beyond the Gates demo out, we are excited to share with you an upcoming preview on what we have planned (without spoiling too much!). The Sketch and PlanThis was our very first sketch and plan of Gate 3 (We cut off a little bit just to not show too much of whats to come!) If you have played the original demo or second demo, you may have seen a glimpse of Gate 3 from Gate 1. We wanted to embrace the metroidvania style of gameplay allowing you to go through different parts of other gates and explore. The most difficult part of this is determining the platforming puzzles and enemies that suit this gate as well. The BaseThe next phase is sketching and drawing the assets. As each is hand drawn we create the sprites and place them in the rough positions. From there, we then determine how the puzzles will be solved and encountered, and thenpotential areas the player…
- WIP Dev Log #1 Bishamon Fight WIP - 14 April 2026
Hello! Since demo 2 is live we wanted to share how we went about designing the art and battle for one of our battles, the Bishamon fight! The video shows us creating and animating Bishamon by hand. We do this process after we completed the concept and white block of the fight. BIshamon's concept was based on more martial arts. We designed him initially to be more 'in your face' against Torii and that would draw Torii into more dodging. The problem we found was that keeping at range and allowing him to attack was too troublesome so he needed more AOE style attacks as well (you could just hit him and run). This is where we added in a strike down and confirmed we needed a strike up. Striking up was to prevent the player just staying above and continually hitting him, where as a strike down would summon either the orbs/thunder of war. The orbs force the player to navigate the terrain while…
- Torii: Beyond The Gates Demo 2 is here! - 9 April 2026
Torii: Beyond The Gates Demo #2Magoraka Gate is here! Without spoiling too much, the entire Magoraka Gate has been added to the demo. Explore the beautiful hand drawn world of the Magoraka Gate and its inhabitants. What Arcanas are there? how will the story unfold? Who else will you meet... Combat ChangesAfter reading your feedback we changed the feel of the combat and parry system. We wanted it to be more rewarding when you parry but also still keep the original feel of the combat. We added a parry reward system, allow you to re-parry thus adding more engaging combat battles between enemies and bossesVisual feedback on successful parriesMore fluid animation and jump feel, making Torii feel far more responsive than the first demoDharma System: we are starting to show a little sneak peek to our unique system with Dharma and combinationsChakra Orb System: we added the Chakra system to enh…
- Torii: Beyond the Gates Dev Update #2 - 15 January 2026
Hello!A big thank you for the feedback in our Discord as well as the Steam forums. We took the feedback and we did some changes that will be in our next Demo update. We really appreciate the time you all took to write to us and we wanted to share!GAMEPLAYMovement - the movement has been improvedin both animations and feeling. We came to realized that the overall feeling of moving Torii was not smooth and fluid as expected of platformers. We have aimed to improve the reponsiveness and feeling of it. Player recovery - the recovery of Torii was a bit off and so we improved the visual and time response on being hit by an attackParry - parry now has alot of visuals but in gameplay, if you successfully parry - you can immediately reparry - rewarding you for doing a successful parry against an enemy and to block multiple attacksVISUALNew animations and VFX feedback. You asked for more feedback…
- Torii - First Demo! - 4 December 2025
Our First Demo is here!Hello! We are proud to present our first demo of Torii and would love your feedback and thoughts! Feel free to use #ToriiGame on any social platform or please use the Steam forums! We would love to hear from you.In this demo (without spoiling too much!)We have given you different orbs to show you how we will focus on elemental attacks (this will be leart in a different way for the full version!)The last boss starts with 'B' and there will be many gates (you only see a portion of gate 1!) We look forward to your feedback and any thoughts!Hand Drawn with LoveTorii is a game with each art being hand-drawn, from the characters to the entire world itself. There was no other way to express the world and in order to bring it to life, Torii was made with an attention to bring back the traditional hand-drawn 2D art style that pioneered the genre today. If you enjoy platfor…
