Dead End is a top down shooter with the main design pillar being high risk high reward gameplay. The game functions as a randomized wave based infinite shooter.
As stated the pillar of high risk high reward informs every game design desciosn. Your gun has only one bullet and takes a long time to reload if you miss but reloads instantly when you hit a target, dashes reset when used offensively, your parry also resets if you manage to hit an enemy with the swing of your sword
Map
The map was designed to create a sense of claustraphopia and danger to moving around. The Player is expected to react to sound cues to deal with threats outside their view
Enemy AI
The AI was designed to push the player to never stop moving and never stop attacking. Each of the four have different behaviours and demand different actions from the player.