About This Demo

About This Demo

The opening stretch of Leadbelly — one complete run, from the first skirmish to the PowderKeg Lieutenant waiting at the end of it. One faction here. Four in the full game.

You're a brain in a jar, wired into a war tank. You don't remember volunteering.

Turn-Based Card Combat: Build a deck, read the board, and spend what you have to get through the fight in front of you. Every enemy shows you what it intends to do before it does it.

Enemies That Change Their Minds: Intents aren't locked in. Drop a mine and a drone that spots it will warn the rest of the formation. What you do on your turn can change what's coming on theirs.

Reap What You Sow: A dying enemy is worth more than a dead one. Its brain surfaces, exposed and draining every turn, and its allies will break formation to save it. Leave it and it self-destructs. Harvest it and the brain is yours to spend — on intel, on repairs, on the location of the boss. It happens to you too.

A Different Road Every Run: The path forks and you pick your door — one shows you the reward it's holding, the other is a mystery. More doors open up as the run goes on. Shops, Sprocket's Tank Workshop, wreckage and worse in between.

Bottom of the Bin: Sprocket's stock has been sitting in a scrap heap since the war ended — casings cracked, plates dented. Common and uncommon cards come to you damaged and underpowered. Every card has its own repair condition: some just need to be played, others need something specific to happen once you've played them. Reach 9 stars and it's fixed for good, in that run and every run after.

Not Everything Was Left to Rot: Rares and legendaries were looked after. They come to you intact — no repair, no stars, no waiting.

Hand-Drawn, Frame by Frame: Every tank, enemy and animation is drawn and animated by hand.

This demo includes:

A complete 14-node run, from the first skirmish to the boss

A card pool that keeps unlocking as you play, and repairs that persist between runs

Modules and perks to bolt into your tank's hardpoints at Sprocket's workshop

Hand-built encounters, shops, and events that can help you or cost you

Roughly 30 minutes per run

In the full game

Three more factions — BlackEmber, StormFront and CopperLung — each built around an element with its own weaknesses. Water conducts. Oil burns. More acts, more bosses, and the rest of the story behind the brain in the jar.

Wishlist Leadbelly to know when it lands.