
By painting them, you reveal what was beneath them, from enemies to treasures to events to gold and much, much more besides. You carry paintbrushes, and you can stand in an area, press Y, and ‘paint’ all of the hexagons around you. It’s a fog of war, effectively, and that fog is lifted in the most surprising way.

You can travel over the revealed hexagons – in fact, Breath of the Wild-style, you could head right to the castle from the start and have a pop if you fancy it, but much like Nintendo’s game, that would be suicide. They represent the world, and they come in two states: revealed and unrevealed. This is a world of hexagons, sprawling out as far as you can see, like an old ‘80s war board game. Once you hop out of your safe haven and into the world of Roguebook, you’d be forgiven for being completely daunted. So far, so familiar, but it doesn’t take long for the cogs of innovation to start whirring. With them chosen, you set off on a rogue-like journey to see how far you can get. That’s not too unusual: games like Monster Train and The Amazing American Circus have dabbled in multiple characters, each bringing their own cards to the deck. Introductions to Roguebook are familiar: choose your character, and then choose a second as your sidekick. Unlike other games in the genre, there’s not much demonic grimness here.Īnd as you would expect from Richard Garfield, much stays the same, but an awful lot changes.

Slovenly kings throw out animated dinner plates to attack cat-rats climb over a siege engine in an attempt to lob fireballs. Enemies are drawn from an endlessly creative mind, sometimes grotesque, but mostly Jim-Henson-like in their overblown character. Everything blooms with a bioluminescent glow, from the pyrotechnic attacks to the lush backgrounds. Roguebook releases June 24 on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.That Faeria gorgeousness is here in spades. Those who pre-order the Roguebook Deluxe Edition will also get 48-hour early access to the game when it's soon to launch, though that's a ways off. Pre-orders will also unlock additional features, as well as progression opportunities. Those who pre-order Roguebook will retain access to the demo up through release, it has now been confirmed. Those who enjoy the demo do have another option to continue playing until launch, however. The demo will only be available for the duration of the Steam Game Festival, which ends Tuesday, February 9. The demo comes with four different heroes to play as, which can be mixed and matched for six different experiences.
#Roguebook developer download#
Players can download Roguebook's free demo now on Steam. RELATED: Slay the Spire Board Game Announced The last influence is developer Abrakam SA's previous title Faeria and its hex-tile board game aesthetic.

Players pick two heroes to play as in each run, which gives Roguebook a two-color deck. Magic: The Gathering is an influence as well, fitting given Garfield's design work. Slay the Spire is just one of Roguebook's clear influences, however. Roguebook is perhaps best compared to other popular rogue-lite deck-builders currently available, the closest being Slay the Spire.

Not only did Garfield and developer Abrakam SA drop a Roguebook demo, but it also opened up pre-orders for a now-confirmed release date of June 24. One of the most exciting upcoming releases participating in the Steam Game Festival is Roguebook, a rogue-lite deck-builder from Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield. Today saw the start of Valve's February Steam Game Festival, and with it came the availability of over 500 game demos.
