- 300+ cards to collect
- 10 year-old co-designer
- ~15 versions of the rules
- Q1 2027 release
Kingfall is a roguelike deckbuilder where every card moves like a chess piece, and it was co-designed by a ten-year-old. J-F Mitchell, who runs DryGin Studios and made Bio Inc and Extinction Day, has announced it under a new name, Legendary Pixels, with a demo coming to Steam Next Fest in October.
How It Started
It began on a Friday afternoon. Mitchell had spent weeks playing Inscryption on his Steam Deck, and his son was just as obsessed with chess. He started wondering what a mix of the two would look like. His son liked the idea, and over the next two days, they built a board, made coins, printed cards, and cut everything out by hand.
Mitchell used it to teach his son the basics of game design, which mostly meant coming up with ideas, testing them, finding what didn’t work, changing the rules and trying again. Around 15 versions later, they had the beginnings of Kingfall. He later turned the homemade prototype into a full game and gave it its own studio name to keep this family project separate from his work at DryGin. He has also admitted his son probably got a bit too much screen time testing all the different builds.
Side Quest Why Does a Knight Move in an L?
Nobody knows for certain, because the move was already in place in chaturanga, the Indian game chess grew out of around 1,500 years ago, and nobody wrote down why. The best explanation is that chaturanga was modelled on an army, and the horse stood in for cavalry, which could leap over foot soldiers and swing in from an angle. There’s some neat geometry in it too. The L covers exactly the squares two steps away that no straight or diagonal move can reach, which is why a knight always lands somewhere awkward, and always on the opposite colour.
How It Plays
Each card follows a chess-style pattern. Units are split into classes, so pawns attack diagonally, knights use their L-shaped move, and the higher-ranking pieces control more of the board. Your deck is your army; there are over 300 cards to unlock, and the blessings and upgrades you find during each run let you shape a strategy as you go.
Around the battles sits a wider campaign to conquer the kingdom, with pitched battles, shrines, markets, and boss fights.
Accessibility Snapshot
Accessibility Snapshot
Accessibility checked: 1 October 2026
This comes from the announcement and the Kingfall Steam page, not hands-on time. I’ll update this if more info becomes available.
Visual
Not confirmed
No details yet on text size, colour options or how easy the cards are to read.
Audio
Not confirmed
No details yet on subtitles or audio options.
Communication
Reported
Single-player only, so there’s no chat or co-op to manage. Steam currently lists English only.
Input/Controls
Not confirmed
No word yet on controller support or remapping.
Cognitive
Reported
It’s turn-based, and the movement rules come from chess, which helps if you already know chess and adds a learning curve if you don’t.
Motion/Sensory
Not confirmed
No details yet on screen shake, flashing or effects settings.
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You can wishlist Kingfall on Steam now, and the demo arrives during Steam Next Fest in October.
Somewhere in the Mitchell house, there’s a stack of hand-cut cards that started all of this.
- Chess club Card battler
- Weekend project Full release
Stay unruly.
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