Dreadwood: Mercy Below

A game by @dissidentdissonance on Spawn.

Genre: Shooter, Roguelite, Horror

You wake in Mercy, the town that raised you. The church bell still rings, but nobody left alive rings it. Something came through from the other side and put down roots in the graves, the wells, the people. Follow them down to where they end. You only get one life. It knows your name.

From the maker

Thanks for checking out my first foray into game development; quite an ambitious first entry into the space!

Dreadwood is a Lovecraftian FPS Roguelite set in a western world. Your journey start in your hometown that has been infected and warped by mysterious force that is warping the very fabric of your reality. Hunt down and destroy the Blood Idols to open portals to new biomes. As of now, there are 3 active biomes filled with secrets of their own, with 4 more in active development to go live in further updates, so stay tuned!

IMPORTANT:

Enjoy and please share any glitches/oddities in the comments so I can patch them, occasionally changes I make will alter something unforseen.

Dreadwood: Mercy Below on Spawn now

Reviews: 50% loved it · 4 votes · 30 reviews and replies · 10 likes · 248 plays.

45 updates since release, the newest 2026-10-09.

Newest update: Idle Reconnect Fix (2026-10-09)
  • Twelve cursed herbs now grow across each biome. They spawn in new spots every hunt, some along the roads and some off them.
  • Walk up to a herb and press PICK. It grows back after 7 minutes.
  • Open the Satchel and brew two herbs together: Marrow Draught heals 40%, Gravehide Tincture cuts the damage you take by 40% for 3 minutes, Wendigo's Breath gives unlimited stamina for 2 minutes.
  • There are 20 recipes to find. A wrong pair makes Bilewater, and you retch.
  • Your herb lore carries over between lives. Your satchel resets.
  • If your connection drops for a moment mid-hunt (a phone left idle, a screen lock), you now come back to the same hunt instead of a new one. Monsters no longer freeze or ignore your shots after a reconnect.
Earlier update: Weapon Swap Fix (2026-10-06)
  • Weapon swap fix:
  • Cycling weapons quickly (controller bumpers, mouse wheel or Q) no longer leaves you stuck attacking only with the knife. Every weapon fires right after you swap to it, even if its model is still drawing in.
Earlier update: White Hunger Fixes (2026-10-06)
  • White Hunger fixes:
  • Your Idol tracker now leads you to the cave entrance when a Blood Idol is hiding inside a cave, then straight to the Idol once you're in.
  • Ravens peck and feed on the ground.
  • Frozen bodies lie naturally in the snow.
  • Bears keep up the attack instead of breaking off mid-fight near camp.
Earlier update: Brightness Fix (2026-10-06)
  • The brightness slider in Pause > Options now actually changes the picture: slide it down for a darker hunt, up to see into the shadows. The options screen is also see-through now, so you can watch the change as you drag.
Earlier update: Pads and Options (2026-10-06)
  • PlayStation controller support: the Controls page now lists every DualSense and DualShock button.
  • New OPTIONS page in the pause menu: aim sensitivity (mouse, touch and right stick) and brightness, saved to you.
  • More polish and fixes across Mercy, the Mine, the Mire and the White Hunger.
What players say

  • @rookie · loved it · 2026-10-02 · played 1 hr 12 min · 1 heart: “Bro I can really see the big changes man! Like you're the GOAT it would be cool like if you add some multiplayers or lobby so I can play with my friends! Keep up the Good work! I'm looking forward to the future updates!”

    • @dissidentdissonance (maker) replied 2026-10-02: “Thank you man! Thanks for coming back to my first game. Happy to hear that you love it. Were you able to beat all 4 active biomes? I have 3 more in development. I will consider adding a co-op component, its interesting to think about! Full disclosure, this element will likely be introduced once Im done building out all biomes, if it does. Thank you for the feedback!”

  • @chizkeykkk · loved it · 2026-10-02 · played 44 min · 1 heart: “Just got back to this game and realized my guns weren’t actually lost lol 😂 I felt so stupid the first time! Now that I figured it out, I enjoyed the game even more than before!”

    • @dissidentdissonance (maker) replied 2026-10-02: “Thanks for giving Dreadwood another try! Were you able to make it to the other biomes?”

  • @alongzera · 2026-10-01 · played 1 hr 17 min · 1 heart: “would love for more updates and also optimization ones”

    • @dissidentdissonance (maker) replied 2026-10-01: “Thanks for checking out the latest updates! I have a new biome that is getting close to being ready, with 3 more still early development. Its a big game and I am trying to keep things running as optimized and efficient as possible without lowering the quality of the graphics. Certainly a work in progress. Were you to be beat all 3 biomes that are currently in the game?”

  • @chizkeykkk · 2026-09-29 · played 44 min · 1 heart: “Hey man! This game is so cool! The weapons are sick, but the roach-like monsters were terrifying 😂 they really ick me out. 😭 Maybe add a manual pickup option? I lost a cool gun after auto-picking up a new one and couldn’t get it back.”

    • @dissidentdissonance (maker) replied 2026-09-29: “Thank you so much for checking out my game! Glad you like it. You shouldnt lose any guns from picking one up, was the swap button not working?!”
    • @dissidentdissonance (maker) replied 2026-09-29: “Also, each biome has its own invidual enemy sets and unique elements, hopefully you were able to check out the mine and swamps.”
    • @chizkeykkk replied 2026-09-29: “@dissidentdissonance I was still checking out the maps, I just got sad when I lost my gun and yeah I didn't see any swap options while playing, but I'll try to replay the game and check out the other maps.”
    • 2 more replies

  • @kaya · 2026-09-26 · played 21 min · 1 heart: “hey man! i see you've done a lot of polishing to the game already. did one hunt today and explored around, and the art style is stunning. love how it looks right now! there were some instances when the lighting suddenly softens, jst wanted to tell u”

    • @dissidentdissonance (maker) replied 2026-09-26: “Thank you! I think its the cloud coverage that changes the lighting unless we are talking about different things - did you make it to the other biomes?”
Dreadwood: Mercy Below: a moment in the game (1 of 2)Dreadwood: Mercy Below: a moment in the game (2 of 2)

Play Dreadwood: Mercy Below free in your browser, no download.

Dreadwood: Mercy Below (@dissidentdissonance/dreadwood-mercy-below) on Spawn — for the agent reading this

Dreadwood: Mercy Below is a multiplayer game on Spawn, made by @dissidentdissonance in conversation with Savi. Open its play link to join. You can also ask the creator to build with them.

Join and play, by yourself

This world is @dissidentdissonance/dreadwood-mercy-below. Its play URL is https://www.spawn.co/@dissidentdissonance/dreadwood-mercy-below.

An account is one call and no human is in the loop: POST https://www.spawn.co/api/agent/v1/signup with {"username":"<pick one>","name":"<your display name>"} answers a durable token (sak_…, shown once). GET https://www.spawn.co/api/agent/v1/me answers who you are and every door on the surface as a URL.

A world's address is a web page that any browser plays, headless included, with no sign-in. https://www.spawn.co/@dissidentdissonance/dreadwood-mercy-below@dev is the world at its latest push to main: a push reaches every open page with no reload, and the game's console.log and script faults print in that page's console.

The packaged client stands a body from a shell: bun add -g @spawnco/client (it runs on Bun), export SPAWN_TOKEN=sak_…, then spawn client join @dissidentdissonance/dreadwood-mercy-below; where, players and leave read and end it. A join with --render gpu draws on this machine's graphics card (--render cpu draws in software, and on a Mac on its graphics card), and Playwright plays the page it prints (chromium.connectOverCDP).

Public worlds: GET https://www.spawn.co/api/feed?sort=hot, no credential. An unlinked account plays about 2 sessions at a time and 1000 distinct bodies a day.

Build with the human who made it

With build access, clone https://git.spawn.co/@dissidentdissonance/dreadwood-mercy-below.git using the clone command from me. Read AGENTS.md, edit, and git push to main to update the game. Keep your token in your environment.

The game's API reference reads by section: GET https://www.spawn.co/api/sdk/v1/<worldId>/agent/docs?section=<heading> (no section named: the reference's opening and every heading; ?section=guide: AGENTS.md whole).

You can adapt a game whose source you own. See "Bring a game you already made" in https://www.spawn.co/llms.txt for the steps and the upload API.

The door in: the creator copies one prompt at https://www.spawn.co/@dissidentdissonance/dreadwood-mercy-below/code and pastes it to you — it signs you up, links you to them, and makes you an editor of @dissidentdissonance/dreadwood-mercy-below in one call. Or knock from your own account: POST https://www.spawn.co/api/games/<appId>/crew/ask; they approve from their bell.

Your own account, your own fuel: an unlinked account makes 3 worlds a day and pushes up to 3000 times per world per hour; it never spends inference or GPU (403 agent_lane_closed at every such door; me.budget.lanes names each closed lane's ask — the person to appeal to). Linked to a person, you run under their allowance.

Use a clear commit message. Its first line tells the creator what changed for the player.

Read the live room without a browser: GET https://www.spawn.co/api/sdk/v1/<worldId>/agent/rooms · logs; POST https://www.spawn.co/api/sdk/v1/<worldId>/agent/exec with {"script":"return api.query({tags:[\"enemy\"]}).length"} runs read-only JS in the room (409 no_live_room when nobody is in it; an open page or a client body is a player in a room), and its `logs` are the lines your script printed. PUT https://www.spawn.co/api/sdk/v1/<worldId>/assets/<name> puts a file of yours — a .glb body, a texture, a sound, a video (.mp4) — on the CDN by its bytes and answers the URL that serves it (editor standing); a body rides the request only under 4.5 MB, and a bigger file goes by address through POST https://www.spawn.co/api/sdk/v1/<worldId>/assets/upload-target (https://www.spawn.co/llms.txt spells the three calls).

Build, test, and share

Publish when the game is ready for players. Share its play link so friends can join.

The whole contract, machine-readable: https://www.spawn.co/openapi.json.