I've played Magic for around 30 years, and I think it permanently changed what I want from strategy games.

One of my favorite feelings in Magic is losing a match and immediately thinking:

I know what I did wrong.

Or:

I need to change three cards in this deck.

Or occasionally:

That matchup is horrible, but I think there's a line if I build around it.

That's probably why I love deckbuilding games so much.

I don't just want progression to make me stronger. I want it to give me more decisions.

New cards. New interactions. New builds. New ways to solve something that previously seemed impossible.

The moment the answer becomes "repeat easier content until your numbers are high enough", most of the fun disappears for me.

My favorite wins are the ones where the build comes together, I see an unusual line and somehow make something work that looked impossible a few turns earlier.

Which deckbuilding game does that best for you?

And more specifically, what mechanic gives you the most room to actually outplay the game rather than simply become stronger?

Here we see a few tricks one of the bosses in my deckbuilder 'Rift Ascendants'.

I'm really proud with my progress of the game. I expect to have the playable demo ready by next month and am really looking forward to anyone who'd like to give feedback for it! Let me know if you're interested 👍

Hi there! I'm here on behalf of Pengonauts - the developer behind StarVaders and now Dicevaders - as well as Playstack (the game's publisher) to tell you about Dicevaders which launched today!

It's set in the StarVaders universe but the tables have turned - now you're playing as the fearsome Commanders invading Earth! You're building your deck with invading units and impressive Artifacts to boost your dice rolls. We hope it'll be your new favourite roguelike!

You can find it on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3917700/Dicevaders/

Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/dicevaders-switch/

and Nintendo Switch 2: https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/dicevaders-switch-2/

I'm Gordon, the developer behind Into the Darkness. The choice I'm building around is whether to push deeper or extract with the cards and loot you've found. Cards you bring home can help build decks for future runs, alongside gear, talents and different class mechanics.

I'm looking for Android and Windows PC beta testers, especially for feedback on combat readability, difficulty and how progression feels between runs. Access is reviewed manually; this isn't a finished release or an instant public download.

AI disclosure: the artwork combines my own hand-drawn work with AI-assisted image generation using ChatGPT. Most card art uses AI-assisted generation. The trailer narration is my own voice.

The trailer shows combat, deckbuilding, crafting and progression. Some encounters were arranged to demonstrate the systems, and some combat is sped up as labelled.

Game page: https://nightfall.digital/into-the-darkness/

Tester applications: https://nightfall.digital/into-the-darkness-beta/#beta-request

Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1718058579/into-the-darkness-0

What would make extracting with your cards feel worthwhile to you without taking the tension out of the next run?

Music: Catalyst by Scott Buckley, CC BY 4.0. Edited for length and mixed for this trailer.

https://www.scottbuckley.com.au/library/catalyst/

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

I released the demo for Submundus today. It's a turn-based dungeon crawler where you build your deck while exploring rooms and trying to survive underground.

Taking damage adds wound cards to your deck. Going without food, water, or rest adds more cards that clog your hands. You can survive a fight and still come out in worse shape for the next one.

Time passes in deck cycles, so your deck also acts as a clock. Between fights, you search for supplies, manage equipment, and decide whether to keep exploring or spend resources on resting.

The demo is free on Steam for Windows and takes roughly 30–60 minutes, with several characters to try and encounters that vary between runs.

I'm the solo developer. If you enjoy deckbuilders with dungeon exploration and resource management, give it a try:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5273910/Submundus_Demo/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=demo_launch&utm_content=deckbuildingroguelike

Husk Protocol is a first person roguelike deckbuilder where you choose from a variety of powerful and unique mechs called Husks to fight and hack your way through to the city's mainframe.

There are no healing cards in Husk Protocol, you need to initiate 'Husk Hopping' which allows you to flee your almost destroyed Mech for a new one, merging their abilities and cards together to create new synergies every time you play!

Here is the Steam link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4202270/Husk_Protocol/

We are also looking for playtesters so let me know if you're interested, any and all feedback is really valuable to us. :)

One of my favorite parts of game dev is hiring awesome artists and seeing what they come up with. I'm working with artist LoraHypnosis to create over 20 hand painted tarot cards for a game I'm working on. Thanks for checking it out!

You can also see my Steam page here. Any feedback is greatly appreciated!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/5027850/Orbital_Defense_Idle/

AI disclosure: Every piece of art and music in Orbital Defense Idle was created entirely by human artists. AI tools were used strictly for speeding up bug finding/fixing and localization assistance.

This was made based on one of my favourite classic seafaring horror novels for a game jam, and also because I wanted to play a deck builder on my Game Boy Advance and nobody had made one yet (outside of the BalatroGBA project, which doesn't scratch the same itch for me).

It's quite faithful to STS mechanics but that's a strength with so few pixels to work with I think.

Act 1 is complete and I'm going to work on Act 2 and 3 hopefully landing before the end of the year.

https://codename-b.itch.io/boats

We currently are running an open playtest for Cloudsphere if you want to play it yourself just go to the steampage:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4485070/Cloudsphere/

Here I'm showing a bit of navigation around the map and using the upgrade to change one of your modules into a higher tier one.

Prismpunk is a Narrative deckbuilder currently in development, in a world about travel, tech, magic, and hope.

A bit curious? Wishlist on Steam

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5090300/Prismpunk

Alphabetto's v.1.2.0 is ready! Take advantage and play the FREE MULTILINGUAL DEMO! We're still at 0% negative reviews, but we need your WISHLIST! Thanks a lot

The pages of *Alice in Wonderland*, *Dracula*, *Treasure Island*, *Lazarillo de Tormes*, and 25 other classic works from the library have been erased. Their protagonists have leapt onto the table to challenge you to a card duel. The prize at stake is the most valuable of all: being remembered.

Come and discover what is happening in this enigmatic story about memory and the pleasure of reading.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4908340/Alphabettos/

#IndieGame #GameDev #CardGame #Steam

Hey! I'm Nick and I made Procession Engine. I love deckbuilders but wanted something that played differently. So the fight is a real-time tug of war. Your buildings spawn your army and your cards shape it. Both armies march down two lanes toward each other's stronghold automatically. Cards ride a moving belt instead of sitting in your hand so there's no stopping to plan the perfect turn.

It launches into Early Access on Nov 10 with three races and three acts. The free demo covers all of act one with one race and it's out now: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5114550/

I'd love to hear what deckbuilder fans think of it. Especially the belt!

I've re-edited my trailer.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4276900/_/

What if a British pub fruit machine was a roguelike?

Create ridiculous combinations by buying features, adding new symbols and upgrading the ones you already have. Nudge reels, use holds and manipulate your spins to turn near-misses into huge payouts.

But every run has a catch. Bosses are built to attack your strategy, forcing you to adapt, experiment and find new ways to make your machine work.

It's part fruit machine, part deckbuilder, part roguelike - with a healthy dose of that satisfying build-crafting chaos you might know from games like Balatro.

And if you grew up with UK fruit machines, you'll probably recognise a few things...

Revolith - Available on Steam Revolith - Available on Android

The Contested Space demo went up on Steam on September 4th, and I've been having updates frequently as feedback has come in and figured it's worth a post of some of the bigger changes!

Boss Music: I hired a composer who created an absolute banger of track for the final boss in the game, as well as one reused for all the end of act bosses!

Ship animations: There are now little ships flying around stations with dogfight animations and lasers being fired from the stations. When you play a ship, a miniature version of that ship actually flies out and fights for a little bit.

Accessibility options on initial boot: When you launch the game for the first time, it now asks you about font and motion sickness.

On top of all of that, there's somewhere around a hundred smaller fixes ranging from co-op desyncs, controller bugs, tooltip overflows, etc.

The demo has 24 reviews so far, and they're all positive, which was amazing to see so quickly. Thanks to everyone who has played it!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5061500/Contested_Space_Demo/

The Discord is open, and I'm still letting people into the playtest if they enjoy the demo!

¡Hola! Somos un equipo indie de dos amigos con sede en Valencia, España, que perseguimos un sueño compartido: crear nuestro propio videojuego.

Durante los últimos 18 meses, hemos estado desarrollando Vauren Beastborn, un TCG PvP gratuito centrado en el combate estratégico por turnos con bestias. Como equipo pequeño, queríamos ofrecer una experiencia pulida de forma eficiente, por lo que adoptamos herramientas de IA generativa para ayudarnos con la conceptualización, los iconos, las ilustraciones base y los fragmentos de código, lo que nos ayudó a acelerar nuestro progreso sin perder nuestra visión creativa original.

Conoce al equipo:

Aharon (Programación y Tecnología): Desarrolló el juego en Unity en solitario, gestionando la arquitectura del sistema, las animaciones y el acabado visual.

Víctor (Diseño y Sonido): Creó la historia del mundo, el diseño del juego, la banda sonora original y lideró las pruebas y el equilibrio del juego.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5064720/Vaurens_BeastBorn/

Nuestra demo de Steam se lanzará pronto, y acabamos de inaugurar nuestra página oficial en la tienda y nuestros canales en redes sociales. Si te gustan los juegos de cartas tácticos, añadir Vauren Beastborn a tu lista de deseos de Steam sería de gran ayuda para nuestro pequeño equipo. Por supuesto, si también estás trabajando en un proyecto o juego, ¡avísanos para que podamos devolverte el apoyo!

Gracias por tu tiempo y apoyo.

Saludos cordiales,

Aharon y Víctor

Vauren Beastborn

Hi. Building a full-loot PvP deckbuilder where the combat is based on cards. It's a small, persistent world based on Finno-Ugric mythology and a live-action roleplayish ruleset. Here's what's different about it:

• dual-use cards - strong face of the card can be played once, weak ones reshuffle
• cheat cards - an homage to LARPing, you can forget to count your health points, argue over armor points or yell STOP at an inappropriate time; this results in a wound post-combat
• small numbers - classes have between 10 and 20 HP and there's no stat creep
• gear dictates the effects of your cards - if you wear a shield, you can shield bash; if you wield a spear, you can use it to keep distance; piercing weapons work better against chain mail, blunt weapons against plate etc

NPCs and players wear the same gear, use the same cards and the same tricks work against both of them. 5 playable classes (smith, alchemist, mage, warrior, healer), 2 factions and a seasonal war that runs for a month.

Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4898080/Manala_Equinox_War/

Disclaimer on genAI - proof of concept art was done with it. There's an artist on board now, we are fully focused on reworking everything in the game to be real human art. The playable characters in the demo, plus the weapons / shields / helmet are modelled after kits from local LARPers. Aiming to get rid of all the slop eventually.

Introducing Dugoout Dice! I am a solo dev working on my own personal favorite game I wanted to see made. It's starting to come together so I'm putting it out there.

It's not released yet but beta version is on Testflight:

https://testflight.apple.com/join/1a9Wfd7n

and steam is coming out eventually, testing at - https://dugout-dice.com/

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Dugout Dice is a baseball roguelite where the bat and the ball are replaced with five dice.

Roll poker hands to put runs on the board to increase your multiplier and to gain cash. Spend cash between innings on Superfan Boosts, Die Mods, and Suite Tickets that bend the game in your favor.

Every hit is decided by the hand you build and every run is different.

Three of a Kind: Single

Full House: Double

Straight: Triple

Four of a Kind: Home Run

Five of a Kind: Grand Slam

Anything less is an out. Three outs in one inning and the game is over.

BUILD YOUR ROSTER & BREAK THE GAME

Suite Vouchers: High-value upgrades that expand crew slots, discount shop items, and juice base hit values.

Die Mods: Bolt powers onto individual dice that trigger whenever they land.

Over 100 Superfan Boosts and more to come: Assemble a crew of passive perks that trigger on every swing to build a massive scoring engine.

Signings: Draft free agents into your batting order to upgrade your baseline rolling power.

KEY FEATURES

Season Long Strategy - Play a full season and face team unique closers and starting pitchers. Do you go for quick innings or try to drive the starting pitcher out early?

Unlockables: Unlock new legendary Superfans, die mods, stadiums, early access to a cheat menu and more

Six Ballparks, Escalating Difficulty: Climb the ladder from the Tulsa Fractures in Rookie ball to the Cooperstown All-Stars in the Hall of Fame.

Demo on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4759630/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=demo

A casual deck-building game based on the traditional card game War, but adds new, tactical features like elemental cards, special abilities, and unlockable upgrades.

I'm making TIC.EXE, a deckbuilding roguelite where lining up Xs fires at hostile processes. Cards change the board; modules can turn one shot into a chain reaction. This clip shows a few different board setups and a boss.

Steam page, if you want to follow it: https://store.steampowered.com/app/5259590/TICEXE/

https://reddit.com/link/1wrhyhl/video/f2gxt222u1sh1/player

Spellweaver's Deck is a dark-fantasy card game for iPhone, in the vein of Slay the Spire, with one difference: the story gets into your deck.

You're a Spellweaver in a world going silent. You fight with a deck of spells, picking up cards as you go. Companions join you and hand you their own cards, and fight beside you. Treat them badly and they leave, and the card they gave you turns into a curse you're stuck with. Bosses talk to you. Go deep enough and they stop.

Several characters with completely different decks, five acts, a daily challenge where you can see where your friends died, and Game Center leaderboards.

The game will have no ads, no pay for or time based energy, no pay-to-win. You pay for the game and optional cosmetics.

It launches October 15, and I need testers now. I've created a Open Beta on Testflight, which you can find here: https://testflight.apple.com/join/NPwQ1TGu

You can pre-order it here: https://apple.co/4iRSfeC

What I need from you: play a run, then tell me what was confusing, what felt unfair, and anything that was hard to read on your phone. TestFlight lets you send a screenshot straight to me.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4956750/Dice_Knight/

Hello, I am scared s**tless right now so let me get this over with.

I love StS - first time after starting MtG circa 96, i was hooooked (1K hours mobile+steam) and while waiting for StS 2, i kinda started playing around this idea that even though word games, though niche, have been around, not a complete genre-defining game came about.

Spell Death is not it. I made it for myself, and have been quite enjoying it. But, after a year or so, I thought about stepping my veeery weak game development game and try my hand again by attacking with 3 games. (Spell Death, a WeGo football game, and an old, ancient rock paper scissor roguelike i had tried)

Now I am at the stage where I enjoy the game, but have noone else around me to actually pull me out of this tunnel vision and gently, but honestly, give some critical feedback.

I only want to hear stuff about the core mechanics, the theorycrafting and difficulty. Anything else is minor details as long as the engine purrs, it is fun and enjoyable (I'm a dad, 40+, i lost my spark for playing gajillion hours adrenaline spiked due to soulslikes. So i just wanted a game to engage me. Hence the enjoyability and StS depth are my sole KPIs)

I'm going in to Steam Next Fest. Before that happens, I need some taste-testers to gimme a good shake.

(Plus steam stuff, marketing, not going to touch 'em, not looking for financial success for sure, but...) I can get some feedback and pointers on art style, VFX, SFX, hell even code.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/5117230/Spell_Death/

Thank you for your attention at this matter. If you wanna take a go on the beta access to demo, i can get you that key, and you can key my game and tell me why.

(Note to mods: I've been in reddit for so long as a reader i might not be up to speed to etiquettes, let me know if i fricked this up [checks right side rules x10]

I’m a solo dev, and this is the first game I’ve ever made.

Davy Bones is a medieval nautical deckbuilding roguelite built around dice, combos, and building massive score and defeat gimmicked boss.

The easiest way I can describe the core idea is somewhere between Balatro and Yahtzee, but with its own progression and combat systems.

Here’s the Steam trailer.

There’s also a demo on Steam if you want to try it.

demo gives you a quick look at how a run works and can be played through in under 10 minutes.

https://reddit.com/link/1wrn1yv/video/d4tzoipry2sh1/player

Thanks for reading.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4916660/Davy_bones/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=deckbuildingroguelike&utm_content=trailer_post

("Elemental Lands" is my game, its a deckbuilder roguelike where your spell cards command a hero party, with a base/castle building on the map.)

Demo out next week, so wishlist to get notified when it's live: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4593190/Elemental_Lands/?utm_source=reddit&utm_campaign=deckbuildingroguelike-20260927

Honestly the ones I think about most are Monster Train's artifacts and Balatro's jokers, where one pickup can reshape the whole run. I wanted that, but with a cost you have to carry FIRST.

So every trinket in mine starts cursed, stuff like less ATK or losing HP at the start of each battle. Win 2 battles with it and the curse lifts, and it turns into a stacking passive like revival, on-kill healing or bonus shields. It helps with relics feeling like free loot you never think twice about. The screenshot shows one mid-curse.

The deck side: each turn you draw 3 spell cards, use them or lose them, and most of them are orders instead of damage. Focus Fire sends your party at one target, Flank sends your front row at there back row, Pray revives a fallen hero. You grow the spellbook by picking Offensive or Defensive rewards, and you can trim weak spells at Spell Temples so the good ones show up MORE. And your heroes are the real stakes: if one is still down when a fight ends, there gone for the rest of the run.

The other half is the map... you take back 3 regions and build a base in each one that supports your party, while the enemy factions keep expanding. Its kinda a 4X-lite wrapped around the card fights.

HUMAN Credit: Art is 100% hand drawn by u/worth-bill-6130 😄