The future of Royal's Gambit!

🎉 Greetings from 96 Games Studio! 🎉

With Steam Next Fest now underway, we wanted to take a moment to sincerely thank everyone who has downloaded the Royal’s Gambit demo, reached out with questions, and offered feedback. Your support means the world to us. As our first title, we’re pouring our hearts into this game—and your feedback is already helping shape its future.

Let’s take a look at what’s coming next!

🔨 Now in Development: Version 0.5.0

We're currently hard at work on Royal’s Gambit v0.5.0, a major content update packed with new features and improvements. Here’s a sneak peek at what’s already working in the beta:

• New Reward Card Types

• Music Playlist Setting

• Show Damage Toggle

• Tooltips Added

🃏 New Reward Card Types

We’ve added three exciting new card types to the reward pool! These are number cards with bonus effects—play them not only to damage Royals, but also to boost your score or increase your combo. You’ll also find wild cards that can be used against any Royal. This update introduces 108 new cards to discover in your reward selections!

🎵 Music Playlist Mode

You asked, and we listened! Some of you wanted to enjoy the music without stage-based transitions—so we’re introducing Playlist Mode. Toggle it in the settings menu to enjoy a continuous music experience as you battle through the game. (Note: this mode isn’t compatible with Survival Mode just yet, but we’re exploring ways to bring it there too.)

➕ Show Damage Toggle

Several players—and even a few teachers—asked for a way to hide the card damage display to encourage mental math. You’ll now find a toggle in the settings menu that turns damage values on or off, making the game more educational or challenging depending on how you want to play.

💬 Tooltips

New to the game? No worries! Cards in your hand now display tooltips to help you understand their effects at a glance. We’ll be expanding this system to include Royals and other gameplay mechanics in future chapters.

🔮 What’s Next?

We’re aiming to add another 20 levels across the remaining planned 5 chapters for the game’s full release. We’re also in the early stages of implementing Steam achievements and trading cards.

But our plans don’t stop at launch! Inspired by the PC games of the ‘90s, we want to keep supporting Royal’s Gambit post-launch with new (free!) content —potentially including new chapters, game modes, card skins, music, and maybe even user-created content in the future.

💌 Stay Connected

Whether you love the game or think we’re totally off track, we want to hear from you. Your feedback helps make Royal’s Gambit better. Join us on Discord, follow us on social media, or shoot us an email—we’re always listening.

Thank you again for playing! And if you haven’t yet, we hope this announcement piques your interest.

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🧙‍♂️ Jimmay & TacoMonkeyGod 96 Games Studio

P.S. If you’ve read this far—awesome! After Next Fest wraps up, we’ll be opening testing applications on Steam. The full release date will depend on your feedback and how fast the two of us can implement all the features we’ve planned. So if you’d like to help shape the future of Royal’s Gambit, keep an eye out for the tester application announcement!