Finland – April 28, 2025 – Pepperbox Studios is delighted to invite all willing to brave a world of eternal darkness to experience Kaamos, a bite-sized roguelike puzzler, which just launched on Steam. Published in partnership with the indie platform indie.io, Kaamos is a dark fight for survival in the ruins of a medieval fantasy world, where the Sun's disappearance reduced human lives to a desperate struggle in perpetual night, lit only by the blinking light of distant stars.
Two pillars define gameplay: The strategic one, where players travel down branching paths of the overworld, seeking items, healing, and inevitably progressing towards confrontations with bosses, and the duel mode, where they confront perilous foes in turn-based battles. The world map is randomly generated in each playthrough, with random encounters in each region bookended by challenging confrontations with exceptionally powerful foes. Each node can provide alternate weapons, armor, enchanted jewelry, or restore an ever-more limited health pool.
Each node may be guarded by an enemy, which is where the unique puzzle mechanics come into play. Each round the player is presented with a reshuffled tile board, whose contents are determined by their equipped gear, and takes action by moving a single row or column to align the tiles. They can attack, defend, restore armor, or charge their dodge bar to cleanly evade an incoming attack, or take multiple actions depending on the alignment of tiles. The foe naturally takes their own actions using the same mechanic, and responding to their intent is a crucial element of each confrontation.
Like real melee combat, fights in Kaamos are not about mindless, chaotic mashing, but approaching each fight with a calm head and awareness of your character's weaknesses, strengths, and special abilities. Each of the seven classes has an unique mechanic: Warriors and Knights will deal increased damage after defending or absorbing hits with their armor; Berserkers deal increased damage the more health they lose; Duelists dodge to gain defense and increased damage, and so on and so forth.
The system is open ended and there's no one right to play each of the seven classes. Nearly two hundred items - weapons, shields, pieces of armor, rings, and necklaces - modify the player character's statistics, modify the number of tiles shuffled onto the board at the beginning of each turn, and more. Each choice has to be weighed carefully, as everyone travels light and swapping out an item means leaving the old one behind, with no guarantee that the next encounter will produce the one necessary to complete a player's desired build.
The system is open ended and there's no one right to play each of the seven classes. Nearly two hundred items - weapons, shields, pieces of armor, rings, and necklaces - modify the player character's statistics, modify the number of tiles shuffled onto the board at the beginning of each turn, and more. Each choice has to be weighed carefully, as everyone travels light and swapping out an item means leaving the old one behind, with no guarantee that the next encounter will produce the one necessary to complete a player's desired build.
These mechanics are fundamental parts of the design philosophy, with each encounter a high-stakes confrontation that may blindside even the most powerful fighter, and each piece of loot an opportunity - but at a potential cost. The world of Kaamos is a dark, dreary place, after all, and the promise of maybe finding an answer to the Sun's disappearance is a distant consideration compared to the immediate survival. As players navigate the corpse-strewn battlefields fighting crazed straggles, explore conquered castles filled with death, and fight for their lives against bandits thriving in this dismal environment, the greater story unfolds.
Each playthrough is bite-sized, framed by a deliberately chosen retro aesthetic. The austere graphics of the game, styled after ancient machines like Commodore C64 or Apple II, put the gameplay front and center, with a soft soundtrack adding a melancholic edge to the darkness. Nothing distracts players from focusing on each puzzle-like fight or making difficult choices on where to proceed on the overworld, and slowly mastering the underlying gameplay.
Each playthrough is bite-sized, framed by a deliberately chosen retro aesthetic. The austere graphics of the game, styled after ancient machines like Commodore C64 or Apple II, put the gameplay front and center, with a soft soundtrack adding a melancholic edge to the darkness. Nothing distracts players from focusing on each puzzle-like fight or making difficult choices on where to proceed on the overworld, and slowly mastering the underlying gameplay.
“"Pixel art was the obvious choice due to its efficiency and ease of piecing together randomly generated enemies from different sprites," remarked Elias Viro, the game’s designer and artist. "The color palette is tailored to present a world stuck in an eternal night with its use of black as the background color while having easily recognizable four main colors for the different types of tiles. These things combined result in a very moody retro aesthetic that is able to efficiently convey both gameplay information and the grimdark feel of the world."
Kaamos is easy to pick up, but difficult to master - and even when you think you've got it, it always has a curve ball to make your character fight for their life.
Kaamos is available now on Steam and is Verified ✅ on Steam Deck!
Assets
Streaming Trailer
ABOUT PEPPERBOX STUDIOS
Pepperbox Studios, an independent game developer based in Finland, is known for their passion for innovative gameplay and unique mechanics. With Kaamos, they’ve blended traditional turn-based tactics with puzzle-solving in a fresh way that will challenge even the most seasoned roguelike fans. The studio’s dedication to creating intricate and rewarding gameplay experiences shines through in every aspect of Kaamos, from its combat mechanics to its atmospheric world-building.
Kaamos is the studio’s latest project, and it promises to captivate both fans of the roguelike genre and newcomers alike with its accessible yet challenging gameplay. The studio’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of turn-based strategy and puzzle games is evident in Kaamos, and this launch marks an exciting milestone for the studio.
Pepperbox Studios, an independent game developer based in Finland, is known for their passion for innovative gameplay and unique mechanics. With Kaamos, they’ve blended traditional turn-based tactics with puzzle-solving in a fresh way that will challenge even the most seasoned roguelike fans. The studio’s dedication to creating intricate and rewarding gameplay experiences shines through in every aspect of Kaamos, from its combat mechanics to its atmospheric world-building.
Kaamos is the studio’s latest project, and it promises to captivate both fans of the roguelike genre and newcomers alike with its accessible yet challenging gameplay. The studio’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of turn-based strategy and puzzle games is evident in Kaamos, and this launch marks an exciting milestone for the studio.
ABOUT INDIE.IO
indie.io is home to hundreds of the world’s most innovative independent video games and developers. Founded in 2020 by Donovan Duncan and Ben Robinson - industry veterans with a collective 40 years of experience across the video game landscape - our mission is to provide support to independent developers and set the standard for gaming creation, management, and promotion. Our tools and services include marketing, QA, playtesting, partnership deals, and distribution to all major platforms to maximize your visibility, revenue, and engagement to ensure long-term success – with no upfront costs. You may know us from Echoes of the Plum Grove, HumanitZ, the Dark Deity franchise, and Coromon!
We’re powered by a worldwide team of 35 remote employees; a mix of semi-professional esports players, developers, and gaming enthusiasts whose passion and technical know-how fuel the company’s mission. As industry experts, we dedicate ourselves to providing innovative marketing support services and integrations; as players, we want to discover and elevate the creators of exceptional, inspiring, and unexpected games of every genre. Join us on our quest to cultivate a vibrant global community of players and creators alike!
indie.io is home to hundreds of the world’s most innovative independent video games and developers. Founded in 2020 by Donovan Duncan and Ben Robinson - industry veterans with a collective 40 years of experience across the video game landscape - our mission is to provide support to independent developers and set the standard for gaming creation, management, and promotion. Our tools and services include marketing, QA, playtesting, partnership deals, and distribution to all major platforms to maximize your visibility, revenue, and engagement to ensure long-term success – with no upfront costs. You may know us from Echoes of the Plum Grove, HumanitZ, the Dark Deity franchise, and Coromon!
We’re powered by a worldwide team of 35 remote employees; a mix of semi-professional esports players, developers, and gaming enthusiasts whose passion and technical know-how fuel the company’s mission. As industry experts, we dedicate ourselves to providing innovative marketing support services and integrations; as players, we want to discover and elevate the creators of exceptional, inspiring, and unexpected games of every genre. Join us on our quest to cultivate a vibrant global community of players and creators alike!