So, roguelike deckbuilders… what can I say. It’s a genre that has been booming especially since 2019 due to Slay the Spire’s success. And ever since, it has been evolving as a genre, and more and more players and developers play or make the game themselves.

In this post, I’ll be reviewing 5 popular roguelike deckbuilder indie games and figure out 3 things out of them:

1. Is it good? If so, what makes it good? I’ll be providing my rating from a scale from 1 to 10 also
2. What makes it popular? You can have a popular game, but it doesn’t mean it’s good
3. What can we learn as gamedevs from this game?

And in the end, we’ll figure out what makes this genre popular and highly enjoyed by players. Of what works in terms of popularity and quality.

Let’s start with the review!

1). Slay the Spire

This is the OG roguelike deckbuilder. Slay the Spire is a 2019 game that will be the primary example of what’s to come in this genre. It involves you in picking the right cards: attack, block, heal, etc while also collecting relics and progressing further into the dungeon.

Is it good? If so, what makes it good?

By today’s standards… it’s just okay. But back in 2019, this game’s mechanics are considered very unique. There’s not much game that combine cards with turn-based battles. Ever since, tons of games either ones that succeed like Peglin, Die in the Dungeon, etc, and ones that don’t, all follow many of this game’s mechanics. Like the battle layout, or the map progression, it’s all originated from this game. The stats are well balanced, the art is above average, and everything is pretty much considered a cohesive and solid roguelike game. I also appreciate how simple and easy to understood the descriptions are, something many roguelike today fails to achieve. But the only thing bothering me is how generic it is in today’s standards. In terms of theming you have the steriotypical warrior enter a dungeon while fighting enemies, and the art style while good doesn’t stands out that much. To me, this is a prime example of how innovation made with solid (though generic) production in a perfect timing worked and become a primary example of what’s to come.

8/10

If I was judging by today's standards, it'll probably be 7/10. But I also aknowledge the game's major influence.

What makes it popular?

Like I said before, I think the primary reasons for its success is timing in inovation + good production + having an audience (dungeon & dungeons geek). If it were to be realeased today (and let’s say that roguelikes already exist in the same way that it is), I bet you it will be way less succesful. Audience also plays a role, because in a time where people don’t relate to roguelike deckbuilders, you use themes that they’re already familiar with: cards, dungeon, fantasy.

What can we learn as gamedevs

Slay the Spire teaches us that inovation and timing plays a big role in your game’s success. But when you’re creating something very new and innovative, you need another aspect of the game that is familiar to players, whether it is art, theme, or something else.

2). Balatro

Well, what else can I say. This is THE game (beside Slay the Spire) that awakens indie developer’s minds (including me!) into roguelike deckbuilders. If you don’t know already, it’s a poker roguelike where you collect jokers, tarot cards, and many others to score higher and higher points (or chips in this game’s terms). Once you reached 100,000 chips, you win or you can choose endless mode. Its main mechanics are the base chips and multipliers. You must collect both if you want to survive the upcoming rounds. It’s a roguelike deckbuilder, for sure. But by the time this game released (February 2024), other games in the market typically followed Slay the Spire’s formula. But Localthunk (the game’s creator) haven’t play Slay the Spire up to that point. This resulted in a very different design that create a second “movement” in the genre (after Slay the Spire’s first “movement”) of developers following its design in hopes of achieving the same success.

Is it good? If so, what makes it good?

Definitely, but not solely on the gameplay. You see, to me Balatro is 35% gameplay and 65% presenation.

The gameplay is so simple, fast paced, and barebones one might say. It’s just you hand picking many items, and once battle comes, you just hope and pick the right cards based on the items you’ve picked. And it’s revolved around you tring to build a crazier score machine while fighting against higher score targets. To me, the gameplay feels mindless… in a good way!

Because the main great thing about Balatro is its presentation. The retro graphics, the swirling background, the music, the sound design, the squish squash animation, this game is SO polished and neatly packaged in a multidimensional-like vibe. I’ve never seen any other indie game in this genre aestheticly and audibly designed in suched concise, neat, and unique direction. And to me, those things are what made it work.

Of course, the gameplay is needed or else the presentation is useless. But the gameplay itself isn’t the majority of the game’s portion. If i can use a metaphor for the game, is that it’s like riding a car while putting on your favorite music through headphones and sitting back on a massage chair. The gameplay is straight-forward: driving (steer the steering wheel, check left and right, use brakes to stop) but its polish (the music, the massage chair) is the filling gap. I’m pretty sure if this game is presented as an idea in a prototyping session with barebones programmer template art, and lacks polished, such idea would be easily discarded. Because it doesn’t leans into a gameplay heavy scale.

But again, to me it proofs that games aren’t gameplay. Games are emotional roller coaster that involves gameplay.

9/10

What makes it popular?

Besides its visually and audably appealing nature and its fast paced “doom scrolling” like gameplay + gambling tone which modern society loves, I think its popularity also caused because of its themes and iconography.

Jokers, poker cards, card packs, holographic effects, etc.

Everybody knows and loves them! Pokers have this vibe of being played by cool kids that gambles and stuff, jokers have a mark in society of being a clown and a menace (for example films and comic books presenting the joker in batman’s universe that released before Balatro), collecting cards with different visual effects like holographic, shining, and others are deeply loved by card collectors. I think Balatro hits a sweet spot for internet culture that loves those stuff.

That’s why the game is so memorable, because you have something simple and easily recognized as a symbol. If it were just another slay the spire’s “you’re a knight fighting goblins and monsters” but slapped into floating cards, I bet that it won’t be successful or as successful. To me, this is even proven by its collaboration with other games. I rarely remember the card reskins of other games, because what sticked to my brain instead is its default card graphics.

What can we learn as gamedevs

In my opinion, Balatro is one of the perfect examples of designing emotions, not just gameplay. Many devs these days just focus on gameplay, gameplay, and gameplay. And of course, games rely on gameplay. But gameplay is just the backbone of it. You need to fulfill other checkmarks of presentation like graphics, audio, polish, etc and if you can: in a unique and haven’t been seen before way. Afterall, games are art. People are willing to buy art that they haven’t seen before, but interesting and recognizable enough to pull them into buying/consume it in the first place.

It also shows how important your graphic design is, especially characters and its art style. Technically well made graphics may please the eye, but technically well made graphics with a UNIQUE, NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE BUT CARED STYLE is what stick to the player’s brain.

3). Nubby's Number Factory

This is a plinko roguelike that’s been hot lately in the indie gaming scene. You play as a factory worker whose job is to operate in a number factory by shooting a ball named Nubby to hit pegs so the factory can gain higher and higher numbers/score. The premise is extremely simple, but one thing that’s definitely stands out is its aesthetics of windows 95 or the vibe of the internet in the late 90s or early 2000s.

Is it good? If so, what makes it good?

It’s pretty good. BUT, I think this game falls into the same category as Balatro of “immersion > gameplay”. I can even say that this game is even more doom scrolling than Balatro due to its physics nature. If Balatro’s gameplay involved in picking the right cards with the right joker, this game is just simply aiming and shooting with the right items. Sure, its doom scrolling nature is part of what makes it succesful, but at the same time I wish there were more inputs available. There’s also these special/boss pegs that occur every certain time where random peg(s) got some special condition that caused something like scoring points, kill nubby, and others. To me, those sessions felt kind of bland. Because its simple premise of bouncing balls (that sometimes bounces to unexpected places) made the popping of those special pegs felt just like begging. The only thing I worried about is not to pop special/boss pegs that doesn’t negatively effect me like killing nubby. In terms of its immersion, this game is such an EYE CANDY. Every sound effect, every item design, the map branch like the black market, cafe, and many others felt very passionately made with rich and cohesivity implemented into them. Even the creator’s face is put on the left corner of the game! This game is very messy in a creative and passionate way. And another perfect example of games being an emotional roller coaster than just plain old gameplay.

8/10

What makes it popular?

I think I’m going to keep it short, since I’ve already explain it in Balatro’s review. But again, doom scrolling-like nature in its gameplay + unique art style and immersion + eye candy = pretty much success. When it comes to its art style, I think it also proofs that nostalgia can be a great tool to make your game more marketable.

What can we learn as gamedevs

Another great example of designing emotions, not just gameplay. And how important it is to consider your game’s graphics and feedbacks. Nostalgia and retroness can also be a magnet to attract players. If Balatro used iconography as its familiarity/selling point, then Nubby used nostalgia as its lead magnet.

4). Peglin

Peglin is a pachinko roguelike where you throw pegballs that bounce on the arena/pegboard. Every time it hits a peg, it will increase your damage towards enemies and some pegs have special effects that allows you to have greater damage, reset destroyed pegs, and many others.

Is it good? If so, what makes it good?

To me, this is the most solid game ever on this list. Not good, but definitely not bad either, just… solid. I think the gameplay, the art, the music, everything is a pure 7/10. It’s technically well made, but can be better. But one thing for sure, this game lacks a disntict style. Unlike Balatro or Nubby this is just another typical “indie pixely turn based game with a fantasy theme”. There’s nothing wrong with that, but since there’s so many games that uses this tone already, it just became dull to me in terms of immersion. The gameplay level is what I expect from Nubby’s Number Factory. But at the same time, this game lacks the emotional immersion that Nubby has which based on what I’ve stated previously, is more important than the actual gameplay. There’s also a thing that frustrates me the most from item gathering based games like these. It is their lack of clarity in descriptions and feedback. In this game we collect many balls. But a lot of them have a lengthy explanation that made me like “oh add damage, yeah sure whatever, I’ll buy it”. It doesn’t have the same level of clarity and understanding of the choices available to me like in Balatro or Nubby. I’m also not a big fan of narrative section in games like this of “you entered a house, and see a blablabla… pick up this item? > Yes / No / etc”. To me, narrative doesn’t suit a fast paced roguelike that highlights pure strategy, not literacy. It breaks the immersion and making me just wanting to pick whatever choice there is to quickly move on.

6.5/10

What makes it popular?

I think this game’s key to success is two things: unique gameplay hook + timing, all wrapt in solid technical qualities. Don’t get me wrong, the pachinko mechanics are unique and worth to be made into a full game, and it’s all executed decently. Because if it lacks polish or were to be even more barebones, I don’t think it’ll be as popular as its current state. But another thing I think is important is its release dates.

The game initially released as early access on April 2022 and full release dropped in August 2024 (almost 2.5 release of early access!). I think back in 2022, roguelikes don’t have as much innovation as of now. People still replicating slay the spire’s card mechanics and just copy and pasting what worked (a thing that happened to this day, but with Balatro, i guess…). And to have a roguelike with this new “gambling”-like mechanic is such a fresh air to players. I think if the game were to be released on early access/full release on 2025 (with the context of roguelikes having many types of presentation), it will have a harder time replicating its success, especially if it doesn’t have a distinct style like Balatro of being a multidimensional poker or Nubby being a windows 95-styled.

What can we learn as gamedevs

From Peglin, we can learn that technical qualities and timing are the foundation of success. But I think this must be layered with a distinct style that makes it more memorable, or even able to bypass the factor of timing. Remember, Nubby is basically Peglin 2.0 of a roguelike with bouncing balls agains pegs, released 3 years later. But it still maintains success because it offers its own voice than just making another indie pixel roguelike where you play as a knight fighting goblins. Again, not to underrestimate technical excellence, it’s a must. Without it style will crumble. But if it’s just that, your game will be eaten by time (either it’s forgoten as time passed by or killed by the timing of its release).

5). Backpack Hero

Backpack Hero is one of the first roguelike deckbuilder that combines inventory management. In this game, you go deeper and deeper in to the dungeons while fighting enemies, gather and enhance your items, and trying to fit those items in a limited sized backpack. This bagpack’s size can also be enhanced over time.

Is it good? If so, what makes it good?

Another solid game. It’s fun to collect new items, enlarge your backpack, and the sequence of you choosing the items one by one starting from attacking to healing to defense, all felt very quick and juicy. But outside of its inventory management, again… it’s a pretty generic game. You go pass a standard dungeon, fighting enemies with the same aspects to watch out: energy, damage, defense, etc. Of course, there are some unique things the enemies could do like giving special conditions on your backpack to block items or prevent spaces. But really, I think anyone who makes a game like this knows that those kinds of stuff are essential to be made. The descriptions are somewhere in the middle, sometimes I understood them quickly regarding to stats, but some special ones that have conditions like adjecent or related to rows, I just ignore them and spam clicking. This game is in a similar path of Peglin’s but I appreciate it more because at least it has more strategy and thought process behind it than just throwing a ball at random directions. But eitherway, I wish there was more style and innovation in terms of its themes and graphics that can make it stand out by its own and not just from mechanics.

7/10

What makes it popular?

Like I’ve said, this game went through similar paths of Peglin: solid execution + unique mechanics + right genre + right time = success. It releases before Peglin’s full release and it also has a succesful kickstarter to fund its development. Backpack Hero’s and Peglin’s development usually started when their itch.io prototype boomed. A successful itch.io prototype is a great signal for developers telling them that people are interested in their game and that the timing is right.

What can we learn as gamedevs

Backpack Hero teaches us that one of the important aspects of a game’s success (especially if it doesn’t have much of its own distinct voice) is timing. And you can decide whether or not you’re in the right timing by launching a quick playable prototype. If many players are downloading, rating, and enjoying the game, that’s a good sign that it might be worth to be made unto reality.

Conclusion

There are tons of other roguelike deckbuilder games that I have not covered in this blog.

But I think I’ve found the silver lining of what this genre should be.

What's a Good Roguelike Deckbuilder?

To me, games in this genre came into the same category of arcade games from the old days. These games relied on a simple core mechanic that is fun and addicting to be played again and again against new and randomized obstacles. A good game of this genre needs to be quickly understood, whether its the core mechanics, stats, or the overall premise. And those core loop must be executed in a quick and addicting experience that fuels the player's dopamine levels. Because there's a lot of games of this genre where if it has weak mechanics then players are going "meh- I'm not going to play this again... it's too one dimensional". If it has poor clarity then the players are going to be frustrated and say "What do these stats even mean? I'll pick whatever!" which will ruin the whole experience. To make a game of this genre memorable then themes, premise, and graphics are your best friend. You need to find a unique premise with a unique style and presentation (this includes graphics, themes, etc) to stand out. Or else, your game will be in the sea of supply and demand where timing and trends will constantly haunt you. If a game has its own style that people cared about, people won't mind whether its genre or premise is trendy or not, they'll play it anyways because that's what games really are: An emotion provoker machine through gameplay, not just gameplay.