Former Doom Animator Turns Severance Into Stylish Roguelite: High Fructose Launches on Steam
High-speed ninja parkour, cursed produce, and recipe-based power-ups – High Fructose is one of the stranger (and slicker) new roguelite FPS games to hit PC, and it’s coming from a developer with serious AAA pedigree.
Christopher Cantero, an animator who previously worked on titles like Smite, Doom Eternal, and briefly Doom: The Dark Ages, has released his first indie project, High Fructose, under his studio Chazak Games. After being laid off from Unity in 2024, Cantero used his severance to go all-in on building the game, which he describes as largely a solo-developed passion project.
The result is a semi-open, movement-heavy roguelite FPS where you play as the Fox, a superpowered animal ninja fighting through a world overrun by demonic fruit.
A Fruit-Infested, Movement-Driven Warzone
High Fructose drops you into sprawling, procedurally generated battlefields that are designed as playgrounds for constant motion. Every run remixes the orchards, elevation, and paths so you’re always adjusting on the fly.
Your toolkit is built for maintaining flow:
- Wall-running, air-dashing, and double-jumping to chain movement across the arena
- Time-bending slow-mo to reposition, dodge, or line up clutch attacks
- A focus on momentum-based “flow-state” combat, where standing still is basically asking to die
The twist is in how combat is controlled: you manually focus on a single weapon – your blade – while the rest of your arsenal auto-fires. Instead of juggling complex weapon rotations, you’re concentrating on traversal, positioning, and target priority as your other tools go to work around you. The fantasy is clear: you’re a living blender made of steel and rage.
Demon Fruit and Recipe-Based Power
The enemies match the game’s wild premise. High Fructose pits you against a roster of corrupted fruit that mutate from run to run, including:
- Banana Snakes
- Cherry Cannons
- Pumpkin Pyros
- Dragonfruit Dragons
Each run changes how these demonic fruits behave and combine, keeping encounters unpredictable.
As you carve through them, you’re not just surviving—you’re cooking. Kills contribute to combat recipes that, once completed, trigger powerful effects such as:
- Healing bursts
- Temporary shields
- Summoned allies
- Explosive area damage
- Corruption-cleansing blasts that help you push deeper
Between waves, you head into a shop phase where you can buy new weapons, perks, and wild upgrades to further specialize your build. Even if a run ends in failure, you earn persistent seeds that feed into long-term progression, unlocking new dark recipes and power boosts over time.
Roadmap: More Animals, More Chaos
Right now, players step into the paws of the Fox, but High Fructose is built with expansion in mind. Future updates may introduce:
- New playable animal ninjas, such as Elephant, Wolverine, or Monkey
- Additional enemy types and mutations
- Expanded recipe lists with new synergies and effects
- Fresh environments and biomes twisted by corruption
All of this is subject to change based on development needs and community feedback, as Cantero refines the game post-launch.
Platforms and Availability
High Fructose is available now on PC via Steam. An Xbox version is planned for the future, though there’s currently no confirmed release window for consoles.
If you’re into fast, movement-centric shooters, roguelite progression, and weird-but-memorable enemy design, High Fructose looks like one of the more distinctive takes on the “survivor-like” formula – just with a lot more fruit and a lot more style.
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