By Aimee Rogers 
Six students just did what most of us only dream about. They shipped a commercial game while still in school, and it got nominated for the German Computer Game Award. Yeah, you read that right.
The game is Cards & Cannons, a roguelite tower defense hybrid that marries deckbuilding with real-time tower placement. Here’s where it gets interesting. Instead of plopping down static towers like some pedestrian strategy game, you’re building an actual deck, drafting cards mid-run, and synergizing your way through increasingly absurd enemy waves. You even control map layouts by placing enemy spawners yourself, which is a neat wrinkle that most tower defense games completely whiff on.
The meta progression is where this thing clearly gets its hooks in you. Between runs, you unlock new cards and starter decks while permanently expanding your modifier slots. In the team’s own words, the goal is to “break every single run completely wide open, making your builds crazier, stupider, and infinitely more powerful.” That’s roguelite philosophy distilled to its essence.
Built with Unity, this is legitimately their first commercial title. The fact that it landed a nomination at a major awards ceremony shouldn’t surprise anyone who understands how roguelites work. The genre rewards iteration and systemic depth, both things that clearly obsess this team.
You can add it to your wishlist on Steam if you want to actually play this thing when it ships.
Steven Andrew