Scoundrel - Roguelike card game

Hello :wave:

Check out my game here

Welcome to a update on my game Scoundrel, Scoundrel is a game based off another game called Scoundrel, which is a single player roguelike card game for use with a standard deck of playing cards. It was developed by Zach Gage and Kurt Bieg. (Can't link to the game)

Even though this game came out in 2011 I just came across it on 2/20 and immediately fell in love, I have yet to beat it but it's still a ton of fun, and it got me thinking what if I turned this into a Playdate game!!!

I recently got into game development for the playdate and made my first game Pong, which I actually finished in about 3 days which I was super proud of myself for, I even made a YouTube tutorial on my channel about it, well at least a more simpler version. As someone who has tried to make games for the last 10+ years and never succeeded, being able to finish a fun game for Playdate in 3 days gave me hope that I could make another one.

I started working on this game 2/23/25 and wanted to share with you my 1 week progress. I'm actually super proud of how far I've come, as the game is actually almost complete. All I have left to do is sound effects and music (something I'm not great at) and add my Guide Page to teach you how to play the game and probably a few images here and there. I'm not sure if I fully like the backgrounds I have so far. so may add different ones. And of course testing it on real hardware to make sure it works as well as on the simulator.

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The game is a ton of fun and I feel the images really make it come alive, and I can't thank potch and their PlayDither tool, which I've not only fallen in love with but made making images for my games so quick and easy.

I tried to incorporate as much uniqueness as I can to the game, like different rooms, hallways, images for all the cards, multiple players, etc. I also tried to use all the buttons on the Playdate, so Left and Right arrows switches between cards, :a: let's you select them, :b: allows you to bare hand fight the monsters rather than attacking your weapon, and the :crank: is used to RUN, which should feel so fun (I hope)

This game is addicting even though I haven't beaten it, well except for when I removed all large monsters, to test the win screen :rofl: I cant wait till the day I do finally beat it, it will make it even better.

Oh... I almost forgot, I also have it track stats, which should save to the game to track every time you play (still waiting on my Playdate to confirm)

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This game taught me so much about game development for the Playdate, I thought I knew a lot when I finished my Pong game, but boy oh boy was there a TON more to learn, but it has been a fun journey getting to this point I'm excited to get my Playdate and test it out for the first time.

If you're still reading this I appreciate it and would love to hear your feedback, based on the gifs, anything wrong stand out to you, or any improvements you think I should make, I look forward to hearing from you.

< Spellthorn

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4 Likes

I think maybe some thicker white outlines around the cards would be nice - since it’s hard to seperate them from the background visually. (Could be a me issue but idk)

2 Likes

I appreciate the feedback, I also thought they may be too thin as well so I'll look into making them a bit bigger, also looking back at the gifs I wonder if I messed up some of the images as some seem thinner than others, oops

I think it looks great. Is this going to be submitted to Catalog when ready?

1 Like

Thanks, I glad you like it. I'm working on sounds today :blush:. I would like to yes, I need to figure out how that works. I also thought about charging or making it free etc, not sure yet what I'm going to do

My game is released!!! You can check it out here https://spellthorn.itch.io/scoundrel

I hope you enjoy it and would love your feedback.

Now that my game is released I recorded a gameplay video about it in case you wanted to see it in action. Also, thank you so much for the 2 people who already bought my game, I don't know who you are but I know you came from here, so thank you :heart: it means a lot and I appreciate your support!

Also I updated the file after you downloaded it because I noticed one section fades to white instead of black (can be seen in video) So, if that bothers, redownload and sideload again. Moving forward any updates will be done properly on itch.io rather than just me deleting and re-adding the file, without changing build number/version oops :joy:

You can check out the gameplay video here if you would like.

Hey everyone!

I’ve spent some time playing through the game and tackling a few issues that needed fixing. Here’s what’s new:

  1. Memory Issue Fixed: I discovered a memory problem where the game would crash after playing more than 4 times in a row due to a memory leak. It took some time to track down, but I’ve resolved it, and the game is now much more stable!
  2. Restart from the Beginning: I’ve added a feature where the game restarts from the beginning when you hit "Play" again. This was something I wanted to do for a while, but I wasn’t sure how to implement it—glad it’s finally in!
  3. Performance Boost: In the process of fixing the memory issue, I also improved performance by optimizing how images are loaded. The game now runs faster and smoother!
  4. 2 New Characters: Since I was already making updates, I thought it’d be fun to add two new characters to keep things fresh. Hope you enjoy them! :grin:


  1. Quirky Loading Screen Sayings: I realized that the loading screen took a bit longer than expected, especially on the actual device. To make it more fun, I added quirky little sayings during the load. With the recent performance improvements, the loading time is shorter now, but I still hope the sayings give you a smile while you wait.

That’s about it! The game is running better than ever. There might still be the occasional memory leak, but I doubt anyone will play for that long in one sitting—though if you do, let me know! :joy:

If you've bought my game. you can download the update and sideload it.

If you haven't bought the game yet but want to, you can do so here :blush:

If you notice any issues not listed, please feel free to reach out. Thanks for playing!

3 Likes

I dont have mony to by this but looks good.

1 Like