A solo developer’s dice manipulation roguelike, Payroll, has shipped with a 100% positive rating on Steam, a threshold the creator admits feels surreal after half a year in development.
The game strips roguelike deckbuilding down to a mechanical core. You throw three dice, rotate each to any visible face, and score points to chip away at a loan shark’s debt. It’s a skill-based framing that rejects the luck-simulator label that’s common in the genre. After each round, players spend earned pips in a shop to upgrade dice faces, craft synergies, and compound their advantage across 10 rounds before facing the loan shark himself, who introduces rule-breaking modifiers in boss encounters.
Payroll leans hard into replayability through deliberate design constraints. There are no permanent upgrades, no meta-progression, and no safety nets. Seven unlockable dice sets each carry different starting faces and unique passive abilities, transforming playstyle entirely. Over 100 individual dice faces mean runs rarely feel identical.
Runs clock between 15 and 30 minutes, ideal for players who want a game they can easily slot into their day, while an endless mode scales difficulty infinitely for players chasing mastery.
The game is available on Steam and itch.io. Whether 100% positive ratings hold depends on how deeply the combo systems withstand scrutiny.