Numerous roguelike deck builders exist in the gaming world. These video games allow you to buy and modify card decks, all wrapped in a cyclical roguelike structure that typically leads you to die and restart with your accumulated enhancements. However, Rogue Light Deck Builder is nothing like the countless other roguelike deck builders on Steam, chiefly because it takes its name in a very, very, humorously literal sense.
How so? Well, it’s a game focused on constructing a wooden deck for your home. It truly is a deck builder. And it’s not even a roguelite, either – the little touch of whimsy comes from a mischievous lightbulb that will laugh and make it more challenging for you to hammer nails into the ground. It’s a rogue lightbulb. Let’s take a look at its deadpan humor and rhythmic hammering.
ROGUE LIGHT DECK BUILDER – YouTube
Between rounds, in which you’re attempting to avoid hammering your fingers, you can invest some hard-earned cash on upgrades to make that lightbulb less mischievous or enhance how effortless it is to achieve a ‘Perfect’ hammer strike, all to appease your hollow-eyed spouse, who communicates like an alien parasite and appears as if he was molded from clay.
“Freedom costs $1,000,000. Construct a deck. Use your hammer. Drive the nails in. Scrimp and save. Freedom is just around the corner. Upgrade your hammer, your hand, your nails. Crush a bug. Upgrade the bug. Crush it again. Say it with me: ‘Freedom is just around the corner.’ Keep your streak alive. The light is blinking. Listen to your nails. Cash out. $1,000,000, remember? Step by step. Hit your hand. Ignore the pain. Just around the corner,” reads the utterly bizarre Steam blurb. A leaderboard and an endless mode are also available if you wish to create decks indefinitely.
Rogue Light Deck Builder actually launched several months earlier on itch.io, but discovered a brand new audience with this month’s Steam release. And it’s no surprise as it’s priced at just $3/£2 due to an ongoing discount. At the time of writing, the game has also garnered hundreds of reviews on Steam, 97% of which give it a positive rating.
“The physics are somewhat of a joke, but it’s a joke that you and your spouse are both in on,” one user review states. “This is the first game that has genuinely captured [Adult Swim] bumper animation energy for me, and I kind of love it for that,” another adds.
If you’d prefer something more traditionally resembling roguelike games, consider trying the very most intriguing roguelike titles currently available.