Unshine Arcade Opens the Doors to an Arcade Gone Very Wrong

A game inside the cabinet, and another game around it

Unshine Arcade is built around two interconnected layers. Inside its arcade cabinet, players enter a top-down roguelite stealth-shooter with procedurally generated dungeon-like levels. Runs produce tickets and colored gacha balls, with the latter feeding into the upgrade system.

Then you step away from the machine. The surrounding abandoned arcade is explored in first person and changes the pace entirely: it contains other cabinets, a claw machine, secrets and, most importantly, a mysterious virtual pet trapped inside the prize cabinet. Freeing it and discovering what happened to the arcade requires winning more tickets.

Moving between those two spaces is the project's central idea. Developer Mart Snijders explains in the official press kit that the concept grew partly from his frustration with roguelites where repeated runs did not feel as though they were progressing toward something larger.

Meta-progression becomes part of the story

Instead of isolating unlocks in an external menu, Unshine Arcade gives that progression a physical place. The action game generates resources that push the wider arcade mystery forward. Gachas found during levels feed upgrades, while tickets bring the player closer to uncovering the building's secrets.

Snijders names Inscryption as a major inspiration, particularly its ability to combine replayable systems with a broader psychological-horror narrative. Unshine Arcade applies that principle to a different setup: the cabinet delivers the immediate action while the abandoned arcade carries the mystery and horror around it.

Stealth and procedural levels inside the cabinet

The roguelite portion is not presented purely as a projectile-heavy action game. The developer specifically describes it as a stealth-shooter. Its stages are procedurally generated, dungeon-like spaces, while colored gachas provide upgrades as successive runs become more dangerous.

The game is single-player. Steam categorizes it as Action, Adventure and Indie and lists Steam Cloud, Steam leaderboards and full Xbox and PlayStation controller support. Six interface and subtitle languages are currently listed, although French is not among them.

A first commercial game made largely by one developer

mardt is Dutch developer and technical artist Mart Snijders. Unshine Arcade began as his graduation project before becoming his debut commercial indie release. The official press kit credits Snijders as the game's developer, with Daniel Veld responsible for composition and sound design.

The project had already been playable well before launch. Its Steam demo has been available since December 2025, and a pre-launch update released on September 22, 2026 added saving to the demo along with the ability to carry that progress into the full game.

The full release finally completes the loop

Steam dates the game for September 28, 2026, and Unshine Arcade's official website now labels it as out. More importantly, the full release is where its unusual structure can finally operate beyond the demo's limits. That demo was restricted to the ground floor, its first two rooms and two virtual-pet stages, while the complete game is intended to expand the arcade, its machines, gachas and overarching story.

For a project of this scale, the combination is unusually busy: roguelite systems, stealth, shooting, first-person exploration and narrative horror all have to hand the player from one layer to the next. That is also what makes Unshine Arcade interesting. Its arcade hall is not simply a menu dressed up as a location; it is trying to become the reason you put another coin into the machine.