Vestibule

You are a doom metal band. The venue is Hell. Twenty-seven gigs stand between you and getting off this stage — three fights per circle, nine circles deep, with a boss waiting at the end of each one.

VESTIBULE is a roguelike deckbuilder about building a band, stacking riffs, and hitting hard enough to kill things that are already dead.

Every fight gives you a set number of Strikes to work with — four, most runs. Between them you play cards: riffs that buff your members, utility that keeps you alive, embers that pay for all of it.

Then you Strike, and every member swings at once — one multiplier cascade of cards, Riff Chains, artifacts and pedals, all stacking into a single number.

Eighteen musicians across nine roles — guitarists, a drummer, a synth player, a vocalist, and a few things that aren't technically people. Ten keywords define how they play, and they stack: FRENZIED, BLASTBEAT, DISSONANCE, DIRGE, ANCHOR, TRICKSTER, and more.

Only the third fight of each circle — the boss — has a real trick up its sleeve. The Drifter survives its own death, once. The Devourer heals off every card you play. Lucifer gets two full health bars.

Certain cards, played back to back in the same Strike, chain into each other for a real multiplier spike. The chains aren't listed anywhere in the UI — you find them by playing. (There's a toggle if you'd rather just be told.)

Nine circles, Dante's own, three fights each: Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud, Treachery. Then Lucifer — two phases, 6,660 HP — waiting at the bottom. About one run in a hundred sees him dead. He's meant to be a wall.

Between fights: a shop, a descent choice, and if you've got the Stash for it, something from the Dealer — a gamble on a one-fight buff that can just as easily go bad.

Five starter decks, each a different way to play: Standard is balanced and chain-dense, the Shredder is pure aggro, the Chaos deck reshuffles itself at random every single run, the Engineer builds around card copies, and the Survivor gives every member a second chance before they go down. Beat one, unlock the next.

Climb the Stakes and the whole thing gets meaner — more enemy damage, less healing between fights, the Dealer charging more — until Demonic drops you to three Strikes a fight instead of four.

• BRONZE — baseline, full heal between fights. ×1.0 score

• SILVER — enemies +2 damage. ×1.5 score

• GOLD — enemies +2 damage, +6% HP. ×2.0 score

• OBSIDIAN — +3 damage, +12% HP. Half healing. Dealer +50%. ×2.5 score

• BLOOD — +4 damage, +19% HP. No healing at all. ×3.0 score

• DEMONIC — three Strikes, not four. +6 damage. No healing. ×4.0 score

The soundtrack is doom metal, recorded rather than assembled. Real riffs, written for the circle you're standing in.

LAUNCHING OCTOBER 2026. Vestibule is in active development. Everything above — the band, the decks, all nine circles, Lucifer — is built and running. What's left before launch is balance, polish, and whatever more playtesting turns up.