About This Demo

BET IN SECRET. LIE IN PUBLIC. RIG THE RACE.

This is the free demo of Crooked Derby, a turn-based digital board game about secret bets, public lies and a horse race everyone at the table is rigging at once.

Play complete matches against bots or with friends, learn the con in the tutorial, and find out how long your lies survive. No time limit, no match cap.

WHAT'S IN THE DEMO

• The tutorial — a short guided race that teaches the crooked trade.

• Solo matches — 1 to 5 bots at Easy, Medium or Hard, over 1 to 5 races.

• Private tables with friends — invite your Steam friends and play together.

• Both decks — the straight Classic deck and the Crooked deck, with dirty plays, doping and a hidden track trap.

• Sprint races — short, sharp races built for quick matches.

• Six characters to play as.

HOW IT PLAYS

Everyone sits down with the same bankroll. Before each race, secretly back one of six equally matched horses. Your stake is public; your horse is not.

Then tell the table your Public Story: the horse you claim to support. Tell the truth, or tell a lie your cards can defend.

Every card is played face-up. Push a horse forward, drag the leader back, and steer the race without giving away where your money really is.

Think a rival's story doesn't add up? Call their bluff. The verdict is instant: catch a liar and their real horse is exposed to the whole table; accuse an honest player and your own horse is exposed instead. And a lie nobody exposes can pay off handsomely.

When a horse wins, its backers split the pot by stake. If nobody backed it, the pot rolls over into the next race. Run out of money and you're out. Finish the match with the biggest bankroll to win.

IN THE FULL GAME

• Derbys — pay the entry in Stubs, race strangers for a winner-takes-all purse, and climb from the County Fairgrounds to the Back Lot, the Night Track and the Vault.

• Full Lap races — the whole 100-square lap, with a bigger hand and longer schemes.

• Quick Play and public tables — jump into a game with players online.

• The full cast — more characters to play as, plus outfits, hats and card backs.

• Progression — levels, records and Steam achievements.

Progress in the demo does not carry over to the full game.

Like what you see? Wishlist Crooked Derby to hear the moment it launches.

AI Generated Content Disclosure

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

Crooked Derby includes some pre-generated visual assets created with generative AI. All AI-assisted content was iterated on, reviewed, and approved by the developer before being included in the game.