#starvaders

the world has one less angel in it.

Toshi, her given name Zoe, is a wonderful, beautiful, incredible person, a light in the dark, who I've had the privilege of sharing a relationship with for 13 years. It breaks me to have to say, but Toshi passed away on Tuesday 23rd after suffering a heart attack.

Her muses in Isola are Alhaitham ( @hetuvidya ), Flins ( @bythegraveside ), Aether ( @abyssalnova ), Lohen ( @unhealingthorn ), Anaxagoras ( @demisedscholar ) and Zhuang Fangyi ( @sunderblades ). She also has Charlemagne ( @douzeepees ), Diluc ( @ragnvindrdawn ) and Arlecchino ( @balemoonash ) whose muses were taking a rest to recharge.

Please if you're willing to keep following the blogs and keep her with you, I would appreciate it, though understand some prefer to keep their following lists tidy, Toshi included. Anxiety has always held her back and she's been guarded which is why she'd follow back rather than first, but she's been braving to reach out and connect with people, and I've been so proud of her for that. She was even about to join the Isola Discord to connect with everyone. There is so much she's been excited for, both in and beyond the group — life has always been unnecessarily cruel to her, but things were getting brighter and there's so much she was feeling more ready to do. Our lives were supposed to play out in full together, she was supposed to have decades ahead of her, and so much heinously overdue good.

I know as well the timing of this is horrific, and apologise deeply. But I wanted people to know, or be reminded, that she's here. Why she's not posting despite how she was improving her activity while juggling life as a full-time carer which wore her out and slowed her despite being passionate about writing here. I want her to be seen, and loved. It's what she's always deserved and desperately what I always wanted for her.

I won't be able to respond to any reaction, but do appreciate deeply any thoughts that go out to Toshi and her mum. I need time to try face a life that was meant to be spent with her now empty, my family need to grieve and support her mum through everything and how we try to live on. I don't know when I'll be active again, but the mods are aware and I'm incredibly thankful for their heartfelt kindness to Toshi and consideration for me.

Started working on a new title called StarVaders!

StarVaders is a roguelike deckbuilder fused with grid-based tactics! Inspired by games like Slay the Spire and Into the Breach with a sprinkle of Space Invaders.

We currently have a demo up and will be updating it for October Steam Next Fest. Some folk have 100+ hours in the demo which is wild.

You can play the demo and give us a wishlist on Steam here:

CHARACTER OF THE DAY: Noel

Series: StarVaders (Video game)

from starvaders

Publishers Joystick Ventures and Playworks, and developer Pengonauts will release roguelike deckbuilder StarVaders for Switch, the companies announced. A release date was not announced.

StarVaders first launched for PC via Steam on April 30.

Here is an overview of the game, via its Steam page:

About

The alien invasion has shattered Earth’s defenses. Pilot, the fate of humanity now rests in your hands. Take the helm of a powerful mech and fight off the invasion—one card at a time. StarVaders combines tactical grid-based combat with deckbuilding strategy, placing you in command of a formidable mech during humanity’s last stand against the invaders. Build up a deck of powerful cards, unleash devastating combos, and defend the Earth at all costs!

Pilot Your Mech Into Battle

Every mech in StarVaders has its own squad of pilots. Each mech introduces unique cards and mechanics, while your pilot further enhances your strategy with their distinct, powerful abilities. Take command of the Gunner Mech to unleash an endless flurry of bullets and explosions, get up close and personal with the ninja-like Stinger Mech, or unleash the powerful spells and summons of the Keeper Mech!

Discover Game-Breaking Combos

Unleash game-breaking combos, outsmart the invaders, and push your build to the limit against ever-escalating threats. With hundreds of cards, artifacts, and upgrades, no two runs are ever the same. Missed a perfect combo or found yourself cornered by the invaders? Use a Chrono Token to rewind time and rewrite your fate.

Endless Replayability

After each run, unlock powerful new cards, pilots, and deadlier enemies and bosses that raise the stakes in future battles. There’s an endless supply of builds and combos to discover every time you play. Ready to push your limits? Take on the various Challenge Modes or dive into the Daily Run to really prove what you’re made of!

Key Features

Craft the ultimate deck from the over 400 unique cards and artifacts available!

Choose from three powerful mechs, each with completely distinct playstyles and mechanics

Master 10 diverse pilots, each adding new cards, mechanics, and a personal backstory!

Use Chrono Tokens to rewind time, undo mistakes, or land that perfect combo

Battle through the multi-part story campaign and uncover a secret finale!

Endless replayability with ascending difficulties, daily runs, and challenge modes

Designed for clarity and intuition—no long tutorials, no wiki required, just pure tactical deckbuilding

Watch a new trailer below.

Switch Announce Trailer

StarVaders is Truly Stellar

Games being created by independent teams have exploded since the days of the mid 2000s, and frankly I think this is nothing but a blessing. One of my favorite games that I have played in 2025 (as of the time of me writing this) is StarVaders. I was introduced to this game through a video by NorthernLion who streamed the title a few times to a somewhat middling reception by chat. As a viewer, however, I was locked in to the gameplay and loved the art direction. 

StarVaders is a 2025 game made by a small studio in Montreal called Pengonauts. Pengonauts is made up of just 3 developers being lead designer Eddie Cai (pseudonym: Axolotl), lead programmer Hansen Liu (pseudonym: Crabdog), and the art director known as Text Settings (according to their website). 

Now that you know of the main folks behind this game I’ll talk about why this is one of my favorite games of 2025. StarVaders is tagged on steam as a roguelike deckbuilder which is a fair assessment of the game. People currently joke a little about this genre in the wake of 2024’s massive indie success, Balatro. Heck, I would be lying if I said I didn’t at least participate in some jokes about the perceived oversaturation  of the genre myself. But StarVaders seems to take some inspiration straight from the source, if you will. The parallels between this game's core gameplay aspects and that of 2019’s Slay the Spire are quite clear upon first glance to anyone familiar with the latter. This, however, is not in any way a critique or negative aspect to me. Where StarVaders adds its charm is through its combining the roguelike deckbuilder formula with grid-based tactics. This gameplay style brings to mind one of my childhood favorite series, Mega Man Battle Network.

The main gameplay loop of StarVaders is simple to grasp, but as deep as the ocean. It starts off quite simple. You start off  with the Gunner mech and its first pilot, Roxy. The Gunner is pretty straight forward. The cards in its deck all have an assigned Heat value and the robot has a Heat sink gauge that maxes out at a value of 4. Where the fun comes in is the Gunner’s main mechanic, Overheat. Overheat is what happens when you play cards and go over the Heat value of 4. This results in you burning the final card that you played which makes the card no longer playable. All of the pilot characters have a starting artifact (think relics from Slay the Spire) and Roxy starts with artifact Fire Starter. Fire Starter grants the player +2 cards and +2 Heat sink upon your first overheat. You might be able to see how this alone allows for a lot of satisfying moments of gameplay where you squeeze in one more attack or movement that puts you in a better position for the next turn. There is a whole wealth of gameplay modifying artifacts as well as a treasure trove of cards to add to your deck. On top of this there are 2 more pilots for the Gunner mech who both have totally different play styles!

An in-game guide explaining Gunner specific mechanics, abilities, play style, etc

Noel’s gameplay style revolves around freezing and removing the burn status on your rightmost card. Zeke, the final Gunner pilot, has one of the most complex gameplay styles I’ve ever come across in my time with countless roguelikes. Zeke’s starting card pool has cards with “components” added to them, and his starting Artifact revolves around burning these component cards which will purge the burned card (removing it for the rest of the encounter), but adds a copy of the burned card along with 1 of 3 cards with a cost of 0 heat to your next hand. 

A screenshot of a basic first encounter as Roxy in the Gunner mech.

All of this might sound complex when written out (especially by an amateur writer such as myself). I promise though that this game is nothing but pure strategic joy. This might be some of the  most fun I have ever had in my life learning a game. I never felt frustrated during encounters; I would just focus on what I could have done better instead. There’s a rewind  mechanic that actually  has a large multitude of uses for those who might find themselves stuck. Accidental misplay? Bad hand of cards? Nothing in the shop to your liking? These are all use cases for the rewind feature. It really feels like the dev team thought of everything to make this game feel as comfortable as possible to play. I won’t keep you here forever discussing every single intricate piece of gameplay; I think it's best for you to discover the fun for yourself after all. Just know that all that depth only applies to one mech you pilot and there are 3 unique robots in total all with 3 different pilots each that totally change how you play the game (4 pilots actually in the case of the final unlockable mech). 

The final mech select screen

Next I would like to discuss some other aspects of the game. The art direction really brings a smile to my face. It's clearly inspired by things like anime, cartoons, and comics, but it all comes together into something that’s really pleasing and original yet familiar. The soundtrack in this game is also composed by plasterbrain. Admittedly I am not familiar with their work outside of this game’s soundtrack, but with how good this soundtrack is I now will be listening to their other work! So many of the tracks from this game have been stuck in my head for a few months even when I’ve taken extended breaks from playing. 

I really wanted to just put a spotlight on StarVaders because frankly I just think its a great little indie gem with a small dev team that clearly love and care about this game a lot (it receives pretty regular updates with things such as gameplay tweaks, bug fixes, and there has been some statements about future content to come). It’s sitting at a 98% positive rating on steam with just about 2,100 reviews. Since my purchase in early May I have sunk in about 20 full hours into this game, and I still haven’t unlocked or seen everything! StarVaders is one of those games that feels truly infinitely replayable like last year’s previously mentioned indie darling Balatro. In a time where AAA games are reaching nearly 100 dollar prices I believe its games like StarVaders made by people like the folks at Pengonauts that remind some of us (like me) what made us fall in love with games in the first place. (To be clear I don’t mean this as a dig at AAA games nor the people who make them, but just that rather it’s important in times like these to support smaller devs and indie projects). 

StarVaders is currently on sale during the Steam Summer Sale for 10% off ($22.49) until July 10th, and I cannot recommend this game enough. Shout out to the devs at Pengonauts, plasterbrain, and the publishers Joystick Ventures and Playworks for the great game.

Roxy's intro cutscene when you play as her for the first time.

LINKS:

GOOD RIDDANCE, NEVER COME BACK