Deathand

Break Velkorin's curse

The sorcerer Velkorin has laid a curse over the land, and its source lies at the bottom of his dungeon. Floor after floor of skeletons, goblins and worse stand between you and him. Fight your way down, defeat Velkorin, and free the land from his curse.

Your light is a card. Your deck is your fuel.

Deathand is a grid-based, first-person dungeon crawler, where every fight is a turn-based card battle. You walk the halls tile by tile with nothing but a single card burning between your fingers. When the flame gutters, you have a choice: stumble on in the dark, or feed it another card from your deck.

Fight in rows, not on a board

Enemies step out of the dark and take their places in Melee, Near and Far. Every card has a reach. Strike only hits what is in front of you, Throwing Knives fly to the back, Shove and Hook knock foes back or drag them in. Skeletons, archers and goblin cultists play cards too, from their own decks, and you can see what each of them means to do next.

Hold a card and it grows

Right-click a card to hold it instead of playing it. Held cards gain a charge at the start of every turn and hit harder when you finally let them go. Knowing when to hold and when to throw is the heart of every fight.

Light is everything

Every step burns oil. In bright light you read every enemy's plan. In dim light you only see what kind of move is coming. In the dark you see nothing, and the dead grow stronger. Burn a card to feed the flame and it is gone for good, and levelled cards burn brighter.

Cards with a use outside the fight

Some cards also work while you explore. Mend your wounds, Scout for the stairs and every chest, Sense enemies through the walls, pick a Lockpick into a locked door, or set an Ambush for the next group you meet.

A dungeon that is never the same twice

Procedural floors that grow larger the deeper you go, from rough caves into halls of stone: pillared halls under chandeliers, chasms crossed by narrow bridges, ritual chambers lit by candles round a pentagram, and galleries two storeys high. Doors creak open, locked ones give only to a Lockpick, and chests and bone piles hold the Bones you earn.

Trials: made by players

Beside the dungeon wait the Trials: fights and small dungeons made by other players, each played with the exact hand its maker chose. Nothing of your run is spent or risked. Pick one from the list, search by name, maker or challenge, and see if you can do what they did. Deep in the dungeon, a sealed door in the wall may bear a maker's name and portrait, with one of their trials behind it and a reward for whoever beats it.

The Trial Editor

Make a trial of your own from the cards you have found and the enemies you have fought. Set who stands in each row and the ground beneath them, choose the hand the player is dealt, and set the rules: health, energy, draw, the light and a turn limit. Then beat it yourself: a trial can only be sealed once its maker has won it, so none is ever impossible. Share it on the Steam Workshop and it turns up in other players' lists, and behind their sealed doors.

• First-person, tile-by-tile movement with smooth steps and turns

• Turn-based card battles with Melee, Near and Far rows

• Hold cards to charge them for a bigger hit

• A light that burns down as you walk, fed by burning your own cards

• Ability cards that also work while exploring

• Cards level up the more you play them

• Pick one of three new cards after every victory and from every chest

• Procedural floors that grow larger the deeper you go, with themed rooms, traps and locked doors

• Trials made by players, played on their own or found behind sealed doors

• A Trial Editor to build, test, seal and share your own trials on the Steam Workshop

• Face Velkorin the Sorcerer at the bottom to break the curse

• A crunchy retro look: pixel-sharp textures, torchlight and deep shadow