When I think about Steam indies, a few genre cornerstones come to mind. We see a lot of roguelike elements, deckbuilding features, and even management mechanics in the big hitters. Games like Slay the Spire, Cult of the Lamb, Balatro, Hades, and countless more. What can I say, we love randomized decks of cards and running societies. If you want a new game with all these elements combined, the newly revealed Kaya’s Prophecy is for you. Putting you in control of a growing tribe that needs to explore, survive, and appease its god, it’s coming to Steam next year.
Slay the Spire’s deckbuilding and Cult of the Lamb’s civilization control aren’t something I’d expect to see an indie game throw together, but Kaya’s Prophecy does just that. The management game from two-person team Thibaut and Jérémie has you building up a tribe, improving them with randomized cards, and setting out into the world in the hope of expanding your power further.
“You must purchase boosters via in-game currency to discover resources inside,” Kaya’s Prophecy game designer Thibaut tells me. “These resources allow you to satisfy your god to acquire new technologies and develop your village. Certain resources are only accessible via exploration, where you must complete a series of fights, meet merchants, or succeed in various events.”
If you’ve played the beloved Stacklands, the village manager was a key influence on the team, alongside quite a few other big hitters. These include “Cult of the Lamb for its art direction and for its alternation between the construction and dungeon exploration phases, deckbuilding games like Slay the Spire, and city building games like Tropico.”
That might sound like an awful lot to pull from, but in reality, Kaya’s Prophecy is more direct in its scope. Just like with deckbuilders, you can open booster packs and use cards, but here they’re made up of resources and equipment. This is to keep your burgeoning tribe alive, appease your god, and outfit your people in the heat of battle.
“You can unlock four different boosters offering new resources. To unlock them you must succeed in beating the leaders of neighboring tribes” Thibaut explains. “There are plenty of other ways to get cards, by praying, through special rewards, or by exploring.”
To explore you need to set out across the world on expeditions. Perhaps you’ll meet some friendly critters or need to fight other tribes in direct combat. That’s the only way you’ll find the ultra-rare resources to help build equipment, which can be used to defend yourself or take out your rivals. It’s a simple loop: get cards, build up your tribe, go out and explore for more cards, enhance your following again.
You’ll want to keep on top of this growth too, because you don’t want to forget about the ever-present deity watching over your village. “We changed the approach of the classic city builder with this god who constantly puts us under pressure,” Aubrun tells me. This “offers a nice batch of surprises and unexpected events for the player.”
Gameplay wise, it means you’ll always have to satiate the god’s needs with the resources you gather from booster packs. If you give them what they want, in time you’ll be rewarded with new technologies, economic boons, and abilities to develop your village. But if you fail, you’ll be cast into oblivion. That means diseases, famines, and maybe even lighting strikes. There are four levels to the god’s wrath, so it’s up to you to make the choice as to whether or not you want to appease them or hold out just long enough to complete other tasks.
Kaya’s Prophecy is a real eclectic mix of ideas, reduced down to their core elements to always keep you on your toes. So if Slay the Spire’s deckbuilding and Cult of the Lamb’s tribe management sound like quite the pair, this is an indie absolutely worth keeping an eye on.
Yogscast Games is planning to release Kaya’s Prophecy in 2025 on Steam. Head over to the game’s store page to add it to your wishlist.
We’ve also got plenty of the best roguelike games and card games to keep you busy, if you want even more like Kaya’s Prophecy.
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