Yogscast Games and indie developer Save Sloth Studios have announced The Royal Writ, a comedic deckbuilder.
Described as “a lane-based card game with permadeath”, The Royal Writ began life as an entry for the 48-hour Ludum Dare game jam competition, but eventually evolved into full development following positive feedback.
“Sometimes a kingdom’s problems can be solved by simple communication – which is why his illustrious highness has decided to send out letters summoning some of the troublemakers to his throne room,” the game’s description reads. “And if the recipients are a little reluctant to accept the invitation? No problem! A little siege never hurt anybody.”
Players collect and place the king’s creatures on the battlefield, where they march forwards and attempt to defeat enemy forces.
Each creature has different strengths and weaknesses, and the battlefield itself can affect their progress. For example, if one area is covered with water, land-based creatures may struggle to get past while aquatic creatures can swim through and flying creatures can just ignore the hazard entirely.
Battlefields are procedurally generated, and players take part in mini-games to upgrade and enhance their cards. However, the game’s main twist is its introduction of permadeath. “You could spend ages powering up a particularly tough card, only for it to disappear if you’ve miscalculated your plans,” the description reads.
“Our original idea for the game was extremely simple, but the fun instantly kicked in as soon as we put down the first rabbit soldier on the battlefield, so it was a no-brainer for us to start making a full-fledged game out of this idea,” Save Sloth Studios co-director Kornél Pittmann said in a statement. “Now, it has grown into something filled with tons of unique mechanics, characters and visuals, and we loved working on every aspect of it.”
Yogscast Games managing director Simon Byron added: “We only sign games we love, so it’s no exaggeration to say the entire team and right across the Yogscast network fell fast and hard for The Royal Writ when we first saw it. It’s such a brilliant, fun, clever take on the genre, full of surprise and jeopardy. We want to marry it.”
The Royal Writ is out later this year and can be wishlisted on its Steam page.
