By Aimee Rogers 
Bad luck in card games has ended countless roguelike runs before they could even begin. Now, a solo developer behind Hellsino has come up with an answer. You just need to replace the randomness of card draw with the precision of spatial positioning.
Hellsino is a dark casino roguelite that merges deckbuilding with grid tactics on a 5×3 board. Instead of praying for the right cards to appear in your hand, you actively place cards onto the battlefield to trigger vertical and horizontal combos. Your deck of 54 cards serves as your life total, and every card you position deals direct damage to the dealer. The twist is if you arrange your cards into classic 3-card poker hands, and you’ll unlock the Nexus Multiplier, stacking massive damage surges based on card values where face cards carry true power, with Kings worth 13 points.
The game leans hard into rule-breaking. Over 45 perks and cheat cards let you warp traditional poker constraints: force flushes, duplicate cards with Mirror Ink, or deploy shields to protect your board. When desperation strikes, the Fold Bomb clears your grid in exchange for destroying one random card permanently. It’s a roguelite built on making you feel like you’re rigging the house, not losing to it.
A free browser version is available now on itch. The official Hellsino Pokerlike Steam Next Fest demo launched June 15th, with the full store page open for wishlists.