Description
Primateria is a roguelike deck builder TCG like no other. It’s a card game at it’s core, but heavily exploiting the roguelike genre to create a unique experience. In Primateria, experimentation is a must, so rewards are mandatory, but at the same time, it’s very easy to get rid of cards on your deck. The game incentivizes creativity, as cards are taken in and out of the deck as the run progresses.
When we started the development of Primateria, it was a traditional paper TCG, with rough printed out cards and a lot of scribbles. From the beginning, we wanted to create a digital version of the game, but we knew a traditional TCG was far from ideal for a two person team. We decided the best way to go was to make a cool single player game, and merge the TCG with the roguelike genre, modernizing the gameplay and creating a completely new loop, which we heavily tested in Tabletop Simulator, using horrible draft cards, dice, and other silly shenanigans.
The Game
In Primateria, you navigate a map like any roguelike, facing card battles as you progress your run. The battle system is a TCG, but with a few twists. There’s no traditional mana, no sacrifices, no summoning sickness. You can play as many cards as you want, all balanced and designed around a fusion mechanic. Enemies you face are randomly selected cards, while the player draws from a deck and tries to defeat them. Boss battles are symmetric, with both the player and the boss having their own decks.
There’s no traditional HP in Primateria. Instead, the player has a damage pile, and it carries from battle to battle. When player cards are defeated, they’re sent to the Damage Pile, and stay there until the player heals. This adds a lot of strategy to the game, like effects that add or remove cards from the damage pile effectively increasing or decreasing the player’s HP.
We are also very proud of the world, the characters and the music we created for Primateria. In all those fronts, we tried to create something unique and memorable. The world is dark and twisted, but with a fun and colorful art style. The characters are all unique, with mysterious personalities. The music, unlike most card games, is energetic and fun, inspired by JRPGs and Sonic games.
Retrospective
Six years ago, when me and my cousin started working on Primateria, Slay the Spire was barely a thing, as we drafted the first sketches for our roguelike deck builder.
Then comes 2023, and Slay the Spire is a huge success, and we now have a publisher, a full game and a release date.
This was a very challenging year, as we had to not only meet publisher demands, but also work on improving the game and making it more fun. We had a number of different demos along the years, and collected a lot of feedback. Each time, the game grew better and better, and we’re very proud of the final result.
We attended an event here in Brazil, a dream come true for us as indie developers. We had a lot of fun, and got a lot of feedback from players. We also got to meet a lot of other indie developers, and it was a great experience.2024
Finally, 2024 is here, and we’re ready to release Primateria. The game officially releases on January 8th, and we’re very excited to see how it will be received by the community.
We’ll continue working on Primateria after it releases, our backlog is extensive and we have a lot of exciting things to add to the game.
It would be great if you guys could check it out:
Please wishlist it if you like it, and feel free to comment any feedback here.
