Big names like Hades and Slay the Spire tend to hog the spotlight, and it’s hard to blame them. They’ve earned it. The problem is that there are over 4,200 games tagged as roguelike or roguelite on Steam, based on figures from early 2026. That’s a lot of games fighting for your attention, and plenty of great ones are going to get buried.
That’s exactly why we’re starting Daily Rogue Discovery. Every day, we’re going hunting for roguelikes that deserve more attention, from hidden gems to games that somehow slipped completely under the radar.
We’re kicking things off with SpellRogue, a tactical roguelike that focuses on dice and spellcasting.
Forget Drawing Cards, Start Rolling Dice
The first thing that caught my attention with SpellRogue is that it takes one of the most familiar parts of a deckbuilder and throws it out the window. There are no cards to draw here. Instead, your spells are powered by Mana Dice.
Those dice are where things get interesting. You can reroll them, duplicate them, split them, flip them, and enchant them during a fight, turning what could have been a simple roll into a whole chain of decisions. You may have the perfect spell sitting in front of you, but if the dice aren’t playing along, you’ll need to work out how to get them there.
With more than 350 spells and 145 artifacts to play around with, there are plenty of ways to build a run. The result is a roguelike that can feel familiar if you’ve played games like Slay the Spire, while still giving you something very different to enjoy.
The world is worth exploring, too. The Voidbringers have torn everything apart, leaving you to fight your way through corrupted areas including the Deadwoods and Scorched Desert. There are more than 75 enemies waiting for you, and they aren’t content with simply hitting you for damage. Some can infect your spells with spreading debuffs, others can set them on fire, while some are perfectly happy messing with your dice.
A Debut That Doesn’t Feel Like One
SpellRogue is the first released game from Copenhagen-based Guidelight Games, founded by Tim Skafte and Thorbjørn Nielsen. You wouldn’t necessarily know it from playing the game.
The game spent a long time in Early Access, with the team taking feedback from the community and continuing to refine the game before its full 1.0 release in April 2025. That extra time seems to have paid off. SpellRogue feels surprisingly confident for a studio’s first game, with its core idea already working incredibly well.
Why This One Deserves a Spot on Your Wishlist
The dice are the big reason I’d recommend giving SpellRogue a look. There are plenty of deckbuilders on Steam right now, but very few give you this much control over the luck you’re working with. Most also focus on cards, so it’s refreshing to find one that works slightly differently.
Do you take the roll you’ve got because it’s good enough, or spend your resources trying to turn it into something better? Sometimes you’ll pull off exactly what you wanted, while other times you’ll make things considerably worse for yourself.
There are four playable Dice Slingers to choose from, each with their own elemental identity, so changing characters can completely change how you approach a run. You’re not simply picking a different set of cards and doing the same thing again.
The game also has plenty waiting for you once you’ve got the basics down. It’s tagged as Difficult on Steam, and the optional Descent system gives experienced players another way to push themselves. You’re unlikely to run out of things to work towards after a handful of successful runs.
Brutal Difficulty, Surprisingly Portable
SpellRogue isn’t afraid to make you work for a win. You’ll need to think ahead, manage your dice carefully and pay attention to what your enemies are doing. The difficulty feels fair, though. Most threats give you enough information to plan around them, so when a run falls apart, you can usually see where things went wrong.
It’s currently Windows-only, with no Mac version, but Steam Deck players are in luck. SpellRogue is officially Steam Deck Verified, with Guidelight Games adding polished gamepad controls and an inspect mode overlay specifically for handheld play.
So if you’ve missed SpellRogue while scrolling through Steam’s endless stream of roguelikes, this is a good time to give it a look. If you enjoy dice and spellbinding sgtyle games you’ll love this one.