New Roguelike Game on Steam is Slay the Spire x Balatro with a 'Devil Went Down to Georgia' Twist

Slay the Spire 2 and its predecessor may define the modern era of deckbuilder roguelikes, but The Devil’s Due is reimagining the formula with a much-needed makeover and a distinctly Southern Gothic twist. It’s a simple enough pitch: cheat your way out of hell after losing your soul in a poker game against the Devil. But by borrowing Slay the Spire‘s visual DNA and roguelike structure and swapping combat for high-stakes one-on-one poker duels, the “fiddle of gold against your soul” charm makes The Devil’s Due feel like its own thing entirely.

The Devil’s Due wears its influences on its sleeve, to be sure, but its uniqueness remains intact thanks to the exact mix on display. Slay the Spire is clearly an influence and the poker play immediately brings Balatro to mind, but by taking a bit of quality from across the Indie royalty spectrum and adding its own thematic strengths in equal measure, this newcomer really does feel like a singular experience. It’s also one indie-lovers can get their hands on now, considering The Devil’s Due (releasing in Q3 2026) already has a free demo on Steam.

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What Is The Devil’s Due?

You’ll face a diverse gallery of monstrous foes in nearly impossible poker battles—but luckily, you’re a cheater.

The Devil’s Due is essentially poker battles against demonic monsters, where hand strength equals damage and card values equal defense. Cheating is the core mechanical hook, as players can conceal/swap cards, boost values, sabotage, and reorder encounters—but overuse raises a suspicion meter that triggers enemy fury. It seems to be a true roguelike (not lite) in structure, so death means starting over, with no permanent upgrades, relics, and cheat cards to accumulate across runs.

The Devil’s Due’s Best Features at a Glance

One-on-one poker battles vs. unique monsters with abilities
Cheating mechanics, with a suspicion/risk system
Card-based map with manipulable encounter order
Golf-like “par” system rewarding efficiency (fewest hands to win)
Fused card system for big build moments
Themed Hell stages with swinging art design

A Thematically Cohesive Spin on Slay the Spire

There’s a lot that’ll feel familiar about The Devil’s Due at first, as the visual and structural similarities to Slay the Spire are clear: tone, pacing, the hand-crafted-feeling art, etc. Where it diverges—to its benefit—is in a much tighter aesthetic. There’s a “Devil Went Down to Georgia”- themed earnestness that’s fused with genuinely creative art direction and (pleasantly) gross demons, making it feel much more visually distinct than other roguelikes.

That thematic cohesion comes through in spades, even from the moment players launch the game. A pretty incredible cutscene with entirely original music makes a charming first impression that only grows, and while some technical kinks clearly need working out, the enemy design, sound design, and general ambience are truly above and beyond here. There will likely be multiple moments in The Devil’s Due demo where the encounters (and the design of the enemies in them) will shock players, and that’s a bold and beautiful thing for a genre that often relies on a mechanical draw over an aesthetic one.

Roguelike Systems That Reward Patience

Like Slay the Spire, The Devil’s Due moves at a slower pace, but that’s a feature that works better here given the smoldering southern style. Each poker hand feels weighty and tense in a way that’s closer to Slay the Spire than Balatro‘s instant-dopamine loop, and with souls on the line and the weight of being caught in foul play sitting heavy in players’ hands, that pace works wonders. Whether you’re negating an enemy’s damage entirely or turning your last spade into a diamond for the perfect flush, cheating in Hell feels earned, as odd as it may sound.

That slower feeling exists in most of The Devil’s Due’s gameplay systems, too, as the sparser item economy and pared-down build crafting feel refreshing coming off more forgiving roguelites. Items do a lot of heavy-lifting, but they are not created equal, and that’s a good thing. The items leave each run feeling twice as unique, especially when layered with the par/gold system, which rewards quick wins as another layer of skill expression.

The Devil’s Due’s Run Progression Changes the Game

Drag weapons to fill the grid

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Before a run even begins, however, The Devil’s Due’s map system (which is a bit opaque at first) instills another layer of genuinely clever strategy. Using earnable “freecells,” players can take and swap encounter cards to reshuffle the order of a player’s encounters, hold cards to shorten it, or even pull a boss round off the board entirely. After all, cheating is the name of the game in The Devil’s Due, and it’s great that it’s true in more ways than one.

The Devil’s Due Demo Can Be Rough

For all of its bright spots, The Devil’s Due demo does have some QoL gaps, like no skipping options, low-res textures in spots, no quit-to-menu option, and an intro that replays every run, but these things won’t be around for long. These flaws are also easy to forgive when the demo covers only 2 of 7 layers of its gameified version of Hell and the ambition is clearly there, as is the drive from developer/publisher Games People Play, who have consistently kept the updates flowing. The seven deadly sin-themed stages and map system especially hint at how much more elaborate the full game could be, so even with some hangups, this is a game worth watching closely before Q3 2026.

The Devil’s Due Already Earns Its Place

Ultimately, in this golden age of indie card-based roguelikes, The Devil’s Due can’t be just a Slay the Spire or Balatro clone. The poker-as-combat concept has been done, but the suspicion meter, map manipulation, and tonal commitment set it apart perfectly. For those thinking it’ll be worth playing before the crowd finds it in Q3 2026, it bears repeating that The Devil’s Due has a free demo on Steam now.