Cycle of Cinder playtest

About Cycle of Cinder

You are only a mage in training when your mentor is attacked by an unknown enemy. At the same time, the other seven Great Sages are being eliminated. With his dying breath, your master sends you into a magical time loop. Only you can still save them!

Cycle of Cinder is a strategic digital roguelite card game built around puzzle-like encounters, spell synergies, reward selection, loadout building, spell upgrades, and metaprogression.

You embark on a journey to find traces of the Great Sages, trying to reach them before disaster strikes. Run by run, your magical abilities grow, along with your knowledge of the world.

Every encounter is a new challenge to solve. Every run is a hunt for a broken build. Metaprogression pushes you forward, not only increasing your chances of success, but opening up entirely new ways to think and play.

• A Roguelite with new challenges and builds every run
• Innovative turn-based card gameplay where every encounter feels like a puzzle
• High strategy, low RNG: Success or defeat depends on your decisions, not on randomly drawn spells
• A Procedural Encounter System designed to create highly varied puzzles and keep every run strategically fresh
• Motivating Metaprogression that increases your odds and unlocks new possibilities for future runs
• Meaningful Rewards that let you shape and improve your build after every encounter
• Deep Spell Upgrade Trees where every upgrade changes how a spell plays
• A story-driven journey through a mysterious magical world, with the roguelite structure woven directly into the narrative
• A powerful Encounter Editor that lets you create, test, and share your own challenges with the community

Each level confronts you with a row of Encounter Cards blocking your path forward.

To move on, you must clear all Cards one after another by paying their costs with limited resources.

To prevail, you must manage more than just resources. Action sequencing, card effects, positioning, timing, and spell synergies decide whether you advance or fall. Every choice reshapes the board. A single move can open new paths — or quietly lock you into failure.

As much as the game is about the Encounter Card row, it is about your Spell Cards. They are the tools that let you intervene directly in the system itself — bending, breaking, and rewriting the rules of the encounter.

They allow you to swap positions, shift cards along the row, send obstacles flying, generate resources, reduce costs, or transform cards into something entirely new.

And this is only the beginning. Spell Cards emerge in many archetypes, each channeling a distinct feel and playstyle. Some reward careful planning, others thrive on risk and momentum — but all of them let you shape a strategy that feels uniquely your own.

The game offers 3 modes:

If you enjoy solving intricate puzzles that test your understanding, Challenge Mode is made for you. You can retry each Challenge Encounter as often as you like until you figure out how to solve it.

Rogue Lite Mode offers a different kind of experience. It is less about finding a single solution and more about efficiency and strategic decision-making. If you get stuck in one of its procedural Encounters, you can use the Pass action to gain new fuel.

But be careful: throughout a run, your Time resource is limited. Once all of your Time is spent, the run comes to an end. Playing more efficiently will therefore let you progress deeper into the run. But that is not all. Rogue Lite Mode adds another layer of strategy through Loadout building. Customize your Loadout by upgrading your Spell Cards and choosing additional ones.

If you feel especially creative, you can use the Encounter Editor to craft your own Encounters and share them with others.

From the game's Steam page.