Whatboy, an indie startup founded by ex-Rocksteady developers, have announced their debut game.

Trials of Fire is an RPG that blends elements of roguelites, deckbuilding card games, and turn-based tactical battles in a fantasy world struggling to survive following a cataclysmic event. You can check out the teaser trailer above.

Players will lead their band of heroes through a scorched overworld map as they encounter random events and battle bands of enemies. Combat comes in the form of hex-based tactical battles, with a customizable deck of cards that represent the orders and abilities your heroes can use.

Here’s a rundown of the game:

Trials of Fire is a single player, turn-based strategy game set in a post-cataclysmic fantasy realm.

The threat of starvation and conflict are never far away as Trials of Fire combines free-form exploration of an expansive open world, multi-character, card-driven combat and an innovative new fusion of loot, load-out and deck-building systems delivering massive depth of play and unique strategic opportunities for the player on every run.

Trials of Fire also features an extensive range of narrative ‘judgement’ encounters where the player is challenged to weigh moral dilemmas in a lawless world, assuming the roles of judge, jury and (often) executioner.

The tactical rogue-like design, procedurally generated game events and expanding gallery of playable characters and abilities challenges the player make every decision count as they journey across a dying world… in search of hope.

The hope that will save your forsaken people, the hope to survive in the desolate and dangerous wastelands, the hope that you and your party of heroes will live to fight again and to see the dawn of a new day.

Key Features:

• Multi-Character Deck-Driven Combat – During combat encounters, the player is able to issue commands to each Hero based on their draw cards. The random draw of cards presents new and interesting challenges at every turn and it is up to the player to consider their best immediate tactical choices via positional play and to optimize their offensive and defensive capacities while taking advantage of any available card synergies that may have arisen in the draw by combining the unique abilities of their three heroes.
• Recurrent Tactical Optimization – At any time between combat encounters, the player can tweak their character’s loadout of weapons, items and gear and in so doing alter their card-defined abilities. The player has the option of assigning resources across their heroes and interchanging items in order to maximize the effectiveness of the triad. New items and weapons are acquired when scavenging in ancient ruins, or looting an encampment after an ambush and so the player is constantly challenged to consider the optimal state of their party’s load-out. Discovering one new Epic weapon could cause the player to rethink their entire strategy!
• Vast Procedural Overworld Adventure – Players will traverse an immense overworld map, choosing their heading and defining their own adventure as they embark upon a journey across a vast and varied wasteland in a perilous hunt for resources critical to the survival of their home settlement. The threat of ambush and skirmish are never far away as the player’s triad of heroes do battle with the roaming denizens of the wild, monsters of lore and legend and the unforgiving lands of the realm of Ashe.

Trials of Fire will be coming to Windows PC via Steam Early Access on May 3rd.