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Cardborne
A roguelite played on a real deck of cards. No deckbuilding. Your weapon can only kill an enemy of the same or lower value than its last kill, so the order you fight is the puzzle. Turn your kills into poker hands, pick jokers, beat the boss.

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Features
Single-player
Family Sharing
Profile Features Limited 
Languages:
Interface Full Audio Subtitles
English ✔ ✔
French ✔
Italian ✔
German ✔
Spanish - Spain ✔
Czech ✔
Polish ✔
Russian ✔
Slovak ✔
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Coming Soon To Early Access

The developers of this game intend to release as a work in progress, developing with the feedback of players.

Note: Games in Early Access are not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more

What the developers have to say:

Why Early Access?

“Early Access gives me time to finish Cardborne with the people who play it. I want real player feedback to shape the full game.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“I plan for Early Access to last up to a year.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“The Early Access version is built on my own ideas, before real player feedback. I want to build the full version together with the players.

What I plan to add:
Exploration: travel between rooms, choose your path and find pieces of the story as you play.
More jokers, and more ways for them to work together.
More bosses, with fights in several phases and enemies tied to the story.
More progression: unlocks, new challenges and character upgrades.
A story mode with a full story and endings.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“One playable boss, a linear path through the dungeon and a limited variety of cards.”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“I plan to raise the price slightly as new content and features are added.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“Community feedback will very likely shape how Cardborne develops.

What players think about balance, jokers and the pace of progression will help me refine and expand the game before the full release.

I plan to involve the community through Steam discussions, the Cardborne Discord, player surveys and social media updates, where players can share their experience and ideas.

Major updates will follow that feedback, with a focus on gameplay flow, new jokers and more exploration.”
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Download Cardborne Demo

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About This Game

Cardborne is a roguelite played on a real deck of playing cards. No deckbuilding. Clubs ♣ and spades ♠ are enemies, diamonds ♦ are weapons, hearts ♥ heal. One rule turns every room into a puzzle: your weapon can only kill an enemy of the same or lower value than its last kill.

Fight order

Equip a diamond and its value becomes your weapon's strength and its uses. Every enemy you kill with it stacks up on the weapon. Kill the 9 first and the 6 and the 4 are still in reach. Kill the 4 first and the 9 and the 6 are locked out for that weapon. Swap to a new weapon and the chain starts over.

When the order goes wrong, you can always fight barehanded and take the enemy's full value as damage. Or spend 1 weapon use on a ranged attack to shave 1 off an enemy's value.

Poker hands

The kills stacked on your weapon form poker hands: Straight Flush, Super Flush, Lazy Flush, Straight and Pair. A hand pays out HP and XP, then clears those cards off the weapon, so the higher enemies are back in reach. That is how a good weapon stays useful. Plan the hand before you swing.

Jokers

Every level-up offers 3 jokers. Take one. Take one you already own and it levels up, all the way to level 3. There are 14 of them. Smith adds strength to your weapon on every poker hand. Grinder adds a weapon use. Iron Will shields you when you fight barehanded. Scare crow makes the weakest enemy flee to another room.

Rooms grow

Each room is dealt from the deck. The first ones hold 4 cards. As you level up they grow, up to 10. Empty the room and the next one is dealt. More cards means more choices, and more ways to get the order wrong.

Diamonds and hearts

You hold one weapon at a time, so every diamond is a choice. Equip it and start a fresh chain, or discard it to give the weapon you already hold +1 use. Hearts heal you. At full HP, a heart gives +1 XP instead.

Enemy abilities

Agro enemies attack you. Guards protect the room. Necromancers pull your kills off your weapon and back into the room. The Jester shuffles your weapon's kill chain.

Two classes

The Escapist can escape a room 4 times per run. The Gambler can reroll the joker offer when you level up.

The boss

When the deck runs out, the boss phases in. Meet the Hive: the Ace of Spades and its bee minions.

Early Access

The full core loop is in. More content comes during Early Access.

Cardborne is a solo project from Lakeborn Studio, made by me, Peter.

But Aces broke the binding law, high and low, a fatal flaw.
Yet fate has drawn a hand anew, a chosen one to cut straight through.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

The developers describe how their game uses AI Generated Content like this:

The music was made with AI tools during development. The art is hand-drawn by me or licensed from other artists, and the game design is my own.

System Requirements

Windows
macOS
    Minimum:
    • OS: Windows
    • Processor: Interl Core i3
    • Memory: 4 GB RAM
    • Graphics: OpenGL 2.1 compatible graphics card, integrated graphics
    • Storage: 300 MB available space
    Minimum:
    • OS: macOS 11
    • Processor: Apple M1 or Intel Core M
    • Memory: 4 MB RAM
    • Graphics: OpenGL 2.1 compatible graphics card, integrated graphics
    • Storage: 300 MB available space
* Starting February 15, 2024, the Steam Client will no longer support 32-bit games or macOS 10.14 or lower.
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