Your knight’s surrounded, your pawns are dropping like flies, and the enemy is one move away from making a complete mess of your carefully planned strategy. You’ve got a powerful attack card sitting in your hand, but there’s one small problem. You haven’t got enough blood to play it. Looks like somebody’s about to become a sacrifice.
DEATHMATE is a chess-inspired roguelike deckbuilder from solo developer halftoasted that’s joining October’s Steam Next Fest.
Chess Club Has Taken a Dark Turn
Forget sitting quietly across from your opponent and spending twenty minutes deciding where to move your bishop. In DEATHMATE, the chessboard is a battlefield, your pieces are soldiers, and every move comes down to the cards in your hand. Each turn provides blood, which you’ll spend on cards to move your pieces, launch attacks, and carry out special actions.
Want to send your knight charging across the board? You’ll need the right card for that. Spotted an opportunity to take out a troublesome enemy? Better hope you’ve got enough blood left to make it happen.
An Army Worth Dying For
Thankfully, you’re not heading into the Underworld with nothing but a few pawns and a prayer. DEATHMATE features more than 100 cards, each with upgradeable versions, allowing you to build a deck around the pieces you’ve recruited and the strategies you prefer.
You’ll collect cards through shops and reward packs, gradually expanding your options as you fight your way through the Underworld. Perhaps you’ll concentrate on giving your strongest pieces more opportunities to attack. Alternatively, you might prefer a deck that provides plenty of movement options, allowing you to reposition your army before the enemy can surround it.
You’ll also discover more than 60 relics, introducing powerful effects that can change how your battles unfold. The trick is making everything work together. Loading your deck with expensive attacks may sound brilliant until you realize you can only afford to play one of them.
A well-balanced army could be much more useful than a collection of powerful pieces that spend half the battle waiting for their turn. After all, there’s no point recruiting an impressive knight if he never gets to leave his starting square.
The Underworld Has a Few Tricks Up Its Sleeve
Between battles, you’ll explore the Underworld, choosing where to travel and which opportunities are worth taking. There are shops where you can pick up useful additions to your deck, mysterious statues that allow you to upgrade cards, and altars offering rewards that could give your army a welcome advantage.
You’ll also find tents containing puzzles, because battling your way through a supernatural chess tournament clearly isn’t enough of a mental workout. Other discoveries include potions, card seals, and powerful new pieces that can help you prepare for tougher encounters.
Of course, there’s always a decision to make. Do you spend your resources strengthening the cards you already own, or save them for something better farther along the route? You’ll have to make those choices without knowing exactly what the next battle has in store.
Every Move Could Be Your Last
The further you travel, the more important your decisions become. A poorly positioned piece could leave an opening for the enemy, while spending too much blood early in a turn may leave you unable to respond when things go wrong.
You’ll need to think ahead, watch the enemy’s movements, and work out how to squeeze the most value from the cards you’ve drawn. There’s also the small matter of keeping your army alive. Sacrificing a pawn to protect a more valuable piece might be a sensible decision, but watching your carefully assembled forces disappear from the board is never going to feel great.
At least there’s always another run waiting when your latest strategy ends in disaster.
Checkmate? Better Check Your Pulse
DEATHMATE is participating in Steam Next Fest, running October 19-26, 2026, meaning you can try out its free demo available now. The full game is currently scheduled for release in December 2026.
You don’t need to be a chess grandmaster to give it a go, either. The game includes a tutorial and helpful tooltips explaining how its pieces work, so newcomers can learn the basics before attempting anything too ambitious.
Although we’d recommend resisting the urge to treat your first few battles like a normal game of chess. Those familiar pieces might look reassuring, but the moment somebody starts spending blood to move a rook, it’s fairly obvious you’re playing by a different set of rules.