Dead Cells Developer Motion Twin Responds after Guillermo del Toro Begs for Version Without Respawns

Dead Cells developer Motion Twin has responded to acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro’s thoughts on the game — specifically, his request for a mode without respawns.

Dead Cells is one of the better known roguelite games out there. Released in 2018, it helped popularize the roguelite-metrovania genre and continues to see support from Motion Twin, receiving consistent updates, crossovers, and content years later.

It’s also a critically-acclaimed title, with IGN giving it a 9.5 out of 10. It’s so well-loved that even Pan’s Labyrinth creator Guillermo del Toro can’t get enough of it… though he did have some requests for its developer.

Speaking with IGN as part of our IGN30 Icon Series, del Toro spoke about how “interesting” the game is to him, but urged Motion Twin to make a version without respawning.“I just hate respawning, because you only get about 35 levels and then you start again. You get faster, but please, do a version without respawning for the older, for the elderly players. I’m available. Contact me and send it to me, please. I beg you!” he joked.

Well, Motion Twin has answered. In a statement shared with IGN, the Dead Cells developer thanked the filmmaker for his high praise and informed him of the game’s Assist Mode, which allows players to tweak certain settings to make their runs a bit easier.

"We'd like to officially add this moment into our own personal Cabinet of Curiosities,” Motion Twin said.

"We are surprised and truly honored to see that Mr. del Toro is a Dead Cells player, and we can even help him right now: there is an Assist mode in the game! This mode lets you resurrect at the start of the current biome or closest checkpoint, rather than restarting the entire run.

"Thank you very much Guillermo for your kind words and your time on the game. We hope this little message will help you!”

Introduced in version 2.9, Dead Cells’ Assist Mode lets players customize settings to their liking, allowing them to resurrect from their last save point rather than restarting an entire run. Additionally, players can choose to make traps activate more slowly, lengthen the time of parry windows, engage an auto-hit mode (which does exactly what you think it does), and much more.

Our conversation with Guillermo del Toro is just a small snippet of our full IGN30 Icon Series interview, which drops later this year. In the meantime, you can check out our previous Icon Series chat with Ken Levine, creator of famed games like System Shock 2 and its spiritual successor, Bioshock.

Image Credits: Motion Twin

Virginia (she/her) is IGN’s News Editor. With ten years of experience reporting on games and entertainment, she’s got a storied background in the fighting game community, influencer news, and viral online trends. Find her on Twitter at @TheeMissGlaze.