Pawnbarian is a minimalist puzzle roguelike. It's built around the core mechanic of using chess moves to control your adventurer on a tiny dungeon board.

Use a deck of chess pieces to hack and slash through hordes of monsters.
Pick up the basics instantly if you're familiar with chess, or learn in minutes if you aren't.
Carefully plan your moves to navigate tricky, emergent tactical situations.
Spend treasure to upgrade your cards with additional powers.
Blitz through quick 15-30 minute runs - or die trying.
Take on the infinite post-run Gauntlet to see how long you can survive.
Pick from 3 characters with unique rules to conquer 3 dungeons full of varied monsters.
Progress through Chains, a series of extra difficulty settings.

What Pawnbarian is not

Pawnbarian is not a full-fledged roguelike with deep and varied builds to explore. There is a bit of progression over the course of a run, but the core of the game is dealing with a variety of enemies, and figuring out what to do each turn.
Think of it as a highly replayable puzzle game with a roguelike card battler feel.

1.2.0 - New heroes, DLC bling, and more!

Hello! Pawnbarian is almost exactly 6 months old today, and there's some fun stuff lined up for that.

Most importantly, 1.2.0 is a major content update, bringing three new heroes into the game.

The Nomad fights using her deadly aim with a bow instead of a melee weapon.
The Capyzerker fuels his rage with pain, and enjoys improved healing to match.
The Mystic relies on supernatural blessings to stay away from harm.

Each has an unique ability and a whole new playstyle to explore and master. Their decks are based on international chess, but each brings a single fairy (non-standard) chess piece into the mix, which complements both the mechanics and the theme.
Game Description Image

Releasing alongside the free content patch is the Support the Developers DLC, which gives all your heroes a [strike]gaudy[/strike] snazzy gold coat of paint. This is purposefully a minor, purely cosmetic change. as I didn't want to nickel-and-dime you by splitting up content into DLC for what's ultimately still a small game. If you enjoy the work me and my two wonderful co-creators did - please consider blinging out your heroes!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1938870
Of course, you can disable the DLC if you want to throw some extra money our way, but don't like the new look.

Both the game and the Original Soundtrack are 30% off for the week.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1734720/Pawnbarian__Original_Soundtrack/

Patch notes

new: all-new Nomad hero
new: all-new Capyzerker hero
new: all-new Mystic hero
new: chain 0, V and X achievements to match
new: Support the Developers DLC release
change: +1 loot track gold on all floors, as a gentle global buff for the player
change: all characters now unlocked with a single Pawnbarian victory
change: updated all achievement icons
change/fix: minor text adjustments
change/fix: minor sprite adjustments

A note about localization

Pawnbarian relies on generous community translations, and the new content isn't fully localized in all the previously supported languages, using English placeholders where relevant. It's been translated into Polish, as well as Traditional & Simplified Chinese thanks to AJiang. If you'd like to fill out the remaining content in one of the languages which are almost there, or help support a whole new language, check out the dedicated thread . Thanks!

What's next?

Mobile version, full steam ahead!
Follow me on Twitter and join the Discord to keep an eye out for updates, and likely some playtests along the way. I'm also inevitably going to get started on another project sometime soon.

Hope you enjoy!
Jan

[ 2022-03-28 17:01:01 CET ] [Original Post]