Roguelike deckbuilder meets base defense in Cardstronaut, and you can try it now

Slay the Spire, Monster Train, Balatro, and Griftlands have all proved just how compelling it can be for a game to combine deckbuilding and roguelike design. Cardstronaut looks to follow suit, taking a similar approach while adding in elements from the tower defense genre. It also has a novel hook, casting a hapless astronaut as the 'tower' in need of protection from an onslaught of deadly alien enemies. Now, thanks to a new Steam demo, you can try it out for yourself to see how its unusual mix of genres actually works in action.

Cardstronaut is a roguelike game where you command an astronaut trying to rescue their friends and overcome murderous aliens in a sci-fi cloning station. Its story involves a potentially untrustworthy AI whose motivations will no doubt be revealed over the course of the plot, but the real star of the show is a new twist on the deckbuilding roguelike.

In Cardstronaut, the astronaut is unarmed, so your only mode of attack is the cloning station's mounted flamethrowers. Aliens can be killed by taking advantage of their side-to-side movement patterns, fueling and properly positioning the flamethrowers before activating them to fire on the targets below. All of this is wrapped up in deckbuilding systems as well as tactical considerations like unlocking new modification tools and managing which flamethrowers to upgrade.

Cardstronaut is set to come out sometime this year. You can find more details or add it to your Steam wishlist here or download its demo right here.

There are also plenty of other great games like Cardstronaut to try out in our lists of the best card games and best strategy games on PC.

You can also chat with our deckbuilding and roguelike aficionados by joining up with our community Discord server.