CHICAGO, JUNE 11, 2026 - Solo developer Lunoland and publisher Joystick Ventures are excited to announce that Dark Cards of Candlewood, a single-player, party-based card RPG, will launch its public demo on Steam at the start of Steam Next Fest June 2026 Edition, taking place from June 15-22.
You can check out the demo on Steam and watch the Demo Trailer!
Dark Cards of Candlewood begins when you survive a shipwreck, lose all your best cards, and wake up in a strange town that has its own very end-of-the-world problems. From there, you have to build your deck back up from scratch, recruit a party of misfits, help rebuild Candlewood, and push back against the Endless Night.
Players step into the boots of Fer, a shipwrecked sailor who insists he is definitely not a pirate, then recruit a party of misfits with their own signature abilities and questionable coping mechanisms. Every turn starts with a simple choice between two cards, making combat fast, easy to pick up but with a lot of depth and strategy. Underneath that simplicity, chain attacks, backpack items, momentum, and party abilities turn each binary decision into a surprisingly deep tactical puzzle.
What to expect in the Steam Next Fest demo:
The game is being built by Chris (aka Luno), the solo developer behind Lunoland, who created the game’s code, art, systems, and writing himself. Before Candlewood, Luno spent years working on a massive survival crafting game before doing the extremely reasonable solo-dev thing of scrapping it and starting over from scratch. The result is a sharper, carefully crafted RPG with the charm of a lost 2000s card battler and the mechanics of a modern deckbuilder.
Dark Cards of Candlewood is planned to launch on Steam in late 2026. The public demo will be available on Steam during Steam Next Fest June 2026 Edition from June 15-22.
Press Kit | Fact Sheet | Demo Trailer | Steam | Discord
About Dark Cards of Candlewood
The world is on the brink of endless night, and you just lost all your best cards in a shipwreck. Build your deck, recruit a party of misfits, and save the town of Candlewood in this single-player fantasy card RPG that combines the best parts of trading card games with a classic, party-based RPG. Featuring a unique, two-choice card combat system that's easy to pick up yet surprisingly deep, Dark Cards of Candlewood lets players discover a huge variety of cards, enchantments, items, and abilities to build around.
The full game will feature over 300 cards, items, and enchantments, more locations and story, challenging modifiers, three additional recruitable party members, and one more class-based card set: Druid.
If you’d like to keep up to date with Dark Cards of Candlewood, join the Discord to chat with the dev, give @lunoland a follow on Twitter or @lunoland.com on Bluesky, or visit Lunoland’s website, Youtube and Tiktok. Lastly, be sure to wishlist the game on Steam to be notified as soon as it drops!
About Lunoland
Lunoland is a one-person microstudio founded by Luno, aka Chris Smith, and based in Chicago. After a background in indie music and digital design, Chris shifted into game development in 2016 and has been building pixel art games ever since. His work blends retro aesthetics with modern systems, with a focus on creative freedom and thoughtful mechanics. Dark Cards of Candlewood is his most ambitious project to date.
About Joystick Ventures
Joystick Ventures is a California-based investing and publishing company whose main goal is to encourage indie developers to stay honest and promote experimentation to push the limits of game design across all genres, styles, and geographies. They are most known for titles like Enter The Chronosphere, StarVaders, Antonblast, Lost in Play, Mandragora, and upcoming games including Trailblazers, WILD Tactics, and Runeomicon.
Media Contact
Andrea Alvarez @ Joystick Ventures
andrea+cw@joystickventures.com
Dark Cards of Candlewood begins when you survive a shipwreck, lose all your best cards, and wake up in a strange town that has its own very end-of-the-world problems. From there, you have to build your deck back up from scratch, recruit a party of misfits, help rebuild Candlewood, and push back against the Endless Night.
Players step into the boots of Fer, a shipwrecked sailor who insists he is definitely not a pirate, then recruit a party of misfits with their own signature abilities and questionable coping mechanisms. Every turn starts with a simple choice between two cards, making combat fast, easy to pick up but with a lot of depth and strategy. Underneath that simplicity, chain attacks, backpack items, momentum, and party abilities turn each binary decision into a surprisingly deep tactical puzzle.
What to expect in the Steam Next Fest demo:
- 🃏 The opening chapter of the story, including a short tutorial
- 🧙 Three of the game’s six recruitable party members: Dari, a runaway faerie princess and rogue who charms enemies and turns their cards against them; Bast, a try-hard white knight and warrior who can turn armor into clutch healing; and Ren, an academy-dropout mage who bends the two-card rule to add more options to your hand.
- 🎒 240 cards, items, and enchantments to collect, equip, and build around
- 🏹 Five of the game’s six class-based card sets: Warrior, Rogue, Mage, Ranger, and Bard
- 🌲 The game’s first location, with four increasingly difficult adventures to complete
- 💬 A special Discord role for players who beat the demo’s hardest adventure
The game is being built by Chris (aka Luno), the solo developer behind Lunoland, who created the game’s code, art, systems, and writing himself. Before Candlewood, Luno spent years working on a massive survival crafting game before doing the extremely reasonable solo-dev thing of scrapping it and starting over from scratch. The result is a sharper, carefully crafted RPG with the charm of a lost 2000s card battler and the mechanics of a modern deckbuilder.
Dark Cards of Candlewood is planned to launch on Steam in late 2026. The public demo will be available on Steam during Steam Next Fest June 2026 Edition from June 15-22.
Press Kit | Fact Sheet | Demo Trailer | Steam | Discord
About Dark Cards of Candlewood
The world is on the brink of endless night, and you just lost all your best cards in a shipwreck. Build your deck, recruit a party of misfits, and save the town of Candlewood in this single-player fantasy card RPG that combines the best parts of trading card games with a classic, party-based RPG. Featuring a unique, two-choice card combat system that's easy to pick up yet surprisingly deep, Dark Cards of Candlewood lets players discover a huge variety of cards, enchantments, items, and abilities to build around.
The full game will feature over 300 cards, items, and enchantments, more locations and story, challenging modifiers, three additional recruitable party members, and one more class-based card set: Druid.
If you’d like to keep up to date with Dark Cards of Candlewood, join the Discord to chat with the dev, give @lunoland a follow on Twitter or @lunoland.com on Bluesky, or visit Lunoland’s website, Youtube and Tiktok. Lastly, be sure to wishlist the game on Steam to be notified as soon as it drops!
About Lunoland
Lunoland is a one-person microstudio founded by Luno, aka Chris Smith, and based in Chicago. After a background in indie music and digital design, Chris shifted into game development in 2016 and has been building pixel art games ever since. His work blends retro aesthetics with modern systems, with a focus on creative freedom and thoughtful mechanics. Dark Cards of Candlewood is his most ambitious project to date.
About Joystick Ventures
Joystick Ventures is a California-based investing and publishing company whose main goal is to encourage indie developers to stay honest and promote experimentation to push the limits of game design across all genres, styles, and geographies. They are most known for titles like Enter The Chronosphere, StarVaders, Antonblast, Lost in Play, Mandragora, and upcoming games including Trailblazers, WILD Tactics, and Runeomicon.
Media Contact
Andrea Alvarez @ Joystick Ventures
andrea+cw@joystickventures.com