Tidecaller: Roguelite Card Battles

Your deck is your crew. The tide decides who drowns.

Tidecaller is a roguelite card battler: you are a sea-mage captain sailing a cursed archipelago. Nine duels stand between you and the Drowned Queen — reef crabs, drowned sailors, sirens, twin sharks, a ghost galleon, and a kraken that does not forgive. Every duel you win lets you draft a new card and, after duels 3 and 6, a relic from the deep. One more run?

How a run works

• Play cards, spend energy, watch the intent. Each turn you gain 3 Energy and draw 5 cards. Click a card to play it — attacks hit the enemy, skills shield you, powers last the whole fight. Block resets every turn, so spend it or lose it. Strength adds damage to every attack; Weak cuts damage by 25%; Vulnerable raises damage taken by 50%.
• Every enemy telegraphs its next move. Chargers coil up before a huge hit. The Tide Thief steals your energy. The Maelstrom Serpent charges the storm. And the Drowned Queen answers every third turn with a Tidal Verdict — and enrages below half health.
• Draft 1 of 3 cards after every duel — 24 cards across three rarities, from Cutlass Strike to Kraken Crush. After duels 3 and 6 you also draft 1 of 3 relics — 14 of them, from the Coral Heart to the Pearl of the Deep — and heal 35%. Duel 5 is an elite: the Twin Sharks, tougher and richer.
• Death pays. Win or lose, every duel banks Pearls. Spend them on the Tide Chart — permanent unlocks (more HP, a head-start relic, the rare relic pool) — and sail again, stronger.

The tide

• 9 duels per run — three acts, an elite, then the boss
• 24 cards with real synergies (strength, thorns, draw engines, energy)
• 14 relics across three rarities
• 13 enemy types, each with its own intent pattern
• 7 permanent Tide Chart unlocks to chase
• Synthesized sea-and-steel sound, no downloads, plays in your browser

Session length: one run is about 10–15 minutes. A single duel is about 1 minute. Dangerously easy to say "one more run" to.

Controls

• Mouse / tap: click cards to play them, End Turn button
• Keyboard: Space / Enter ends your turn

Progress (Pearls, unlocks, records) saves automatically in your browser.

Made with AI assistance (code) — all art is drawn by the game's own code, all sound is synthesized live. No assets, no downloads, no accounts.

Playtesting this for the Playtest & Feedback Exchange Jam? Thank you! Two things help most: (1) Did the first three duels teach you the energy/block rhythm without reading the help? (2) Which card draft made you grin — and did the Drowned Queen feel fair? Honest criticism welcome; specifics beat scores.