Today, Digital Vortex and Greedy Games have revealed I Am Plague, a dark incremental roguelite that puts players in control of a growing swarm of rats attempting to survive and conquer a dangerous underground fortress.
Alongside the reveal, the teams announced an open playtest that is available now on PC (Steam) and will run through October 19, 2026. In I Am Plague, players control a hivemind of thousands of rats that have survived for centuries beneath humanity’s grand capital.
The colony must fight its way toward the surface through more than 200 dungeon floors, consuming enemies and growing stronger through auto-combat encounters as increasingly dangerous threats stand in the way.
Progression centers around combining mutations to create powerful synergies for the swarm. Players can add status effects to their attacks, gain additional health by consuming defeated enemies, develop protective bone armor, and harvest flesh and bones from fallen foes to further customize their build.
The fortress also features new Visages that let players change the swarm’s class by placing enemy skulls atop the mass of rats. Each class introduces new abilities and provides additional ways to specialize the colony as players explore branching routes, Shops, text-based events, and other secrets hidden throughout the dungeon.
Early runs are expected to end in defeat, but death contributes to permanent progression. Players can return to the rats’ lair and make offerings to the Tree of Flesh and Tree of Bones, unlocking permanent stat improvements and new mutations that let the colony push deeper into the fortress on subsequent attempts.
I Am Plague features more than 50 mutations spread across multiple rarity tiers, permanent upgrades to the horde’s base statistics, new enemy types and character classes, branching routes, Shops, text-based events, and increasingly dangerous bosses. The goal is to continually refine the swarm’s build and eventually rise from a struggling colony into a feared Rat King.
Digital Vortex is a new publisher founded by game industry veterans with experience working on titles including Atomic Heart, Lost Ark, and PUBG Battlegrounds. The publisher says it is focused on games across a variety of genres and formats, with an emphasis on projects its team would want to play themselves.
