The devs of a promising Slay the Spire-alike are delaying their game to Dodge and Roll away from Slay the Spire 2's launch: 'You'll be playing it, we'll be playing it, everyone will be playing it'

The devs of a promising Slay the Spire-alike are delaying their game to Dodge and Roll away from Slay the Spire 2’s launch: ‘You’ll be playing it, we’ll be playing it, everyone will be playing it’ | PC Gamer Skip to main content Open menu Close main menu PC Gamer THE GLOBAL AUTHORITY ON PC GAMES US Edition UK US Canada Australia Subscribe Sign in View Profile Sign out Search Search PC Gamer Games Hardware News Reviews Guides Video Forum More PC Gaming Show PC Gamer Clips Software Codes Coupons Movies & TV Magazine Newsletter Affiliate links Meet the team Community guidelines About PC Gamer PC Gamer Magazine SubscriptionWhy subscribe?Subscribe to the world’s #1 PC gaming magTry a single issue or save on a subscriptionIssues delivered straight to your door or device From$1Subscribe now Don’t miss these RPG ‘We lost things such as physics in games:’ The dev behind my most anticipated RPG thinks players are craving more interactive games, not just ‘moving around in a static 3D environment’ RPG The dev behind my top upcoming RPG is a Hungarian chef who thought ‘if not now, then when?’ and learned coding from scratch to make his dream ‘eurojank’ masterpiece Strategy Steam Next Fest hasn’t even started, and its first must-play demo is already here Fighting The best Smash Bros.-like on Steam just added a character who can shop for items and go fishing in the middle of a match, in case you thought fighting games were too one-note Card Game If you’ve ever had a crippling Vampire Survivors or Slay the Spire habit, avoid Vampire Crawlers at all costs Card Game Surprise: Slay the Spire 2 is bringing 4-player co-op when it hits early access on March 6 Roguelike To celebrate 2 years of Balatro, creator LocalThunk reflected on dropping out of an engineering program to make games: ‘Even if I could warn myself I’m not sure what I could have said to prepare for the insanity’ Platforms Five new Steam games you probably missed (February 16, 2026) Card Game The Killing Stone combines occult contract law with card-battling in an isolated 17th century mansion Games New games 2025: The year’s PC game releases Games The best laptop games Handheld Gaming PCs The best Steam Deck games Strategy ‘We have made back our development budget after 3 hours’: Mewgenics explodes to number one Steam seller 14 years after its announcement Card Game Death Howl review: A brilliantly abrasive hybrid of deckbuilder and soulslike Roguelike ‘I told you so!’: As Mewgenics roars past 250,000 copies sold in less than a day, Edmund McMillen says ‘I knew this game would eventually see the light of day, and I knew it would be my best work’ PopularNEW: PC Gamer Clips!Arc RaidersBest PC gearFalloutGame Quizzes Games Roguelike The devs of a promising Slay the Spire-alike are delaying their game to Dodge and Roll away from Slay the Spire 2’s launch: ‘You’ll be playing it, we’ll be playing it, everyone will be playing it’ News By Justin Wagner published 22 February 2026 “We’d get absolutely crushed.” When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: 58BLADES) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter PC Gamer Get the PC Gamer Newsletter Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Want to add more newsletters? Every Friday GamesRadar+ Your weekly update on everything you could ever want to know about the games you already love, games we know you’re going to love in the near future, and tales from the communities that surround them. 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From first-look trailers, interviews, reviews and explainers, we’ve got you covered. Signup + Once a month SFX Get sneak previews, exclusive competitions and details of special events each month! Signup + An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter There are few deckbuilding roguelikes more celebrated than Slay the Spire, which has ruled the genre roost since 2019 when it blew everyone away and got a 92% review from PC Gamer strategic director Evan Lahti.Its sequel where “everything is bigger” is releasing into early access March 6. Great news for the PC gamer team, which crowned it our Most Wanted game last year—not so much for anyone dropping a deckbuilder in the same week.58BLADES, the studio behind upcoming rock paper scissors-themed deckbuilding roguelike Handmancers, announced yesterday that it would be moving the game’s planned release date “slightly further into the future” in response to Slay the Spire 2’s launch. StS’s release date trailer arrived a single day after Handmancers’s announcement that the game would release March 9. Related articles ‘We ended up flipping a coin’: Slay the Spire devs left it up to pure chance whether they’d make a sequel or something else Slay the Spire 2: All the key details on the beloved deckbuilder’s sequel ‘Everything is bigger’ in Slay the Spire 2, which has been crowned our Most Wanted game A post on X from 58BLADES explains the studio’s reasoning. “Our original plan was simple: drop Handmancers during #TurnBasedThursdayFest. You watch the showcase and boom— ‘Handmancers Available Now.’ Perfect, right? Then literally the next day we saw the news.”The statement continues that “you’ll be playing it, we’ll be playing it, everyone will be playing it. We’re huge fans and insanely excited. But launching a deckbuilder the same week as Slay the Spire 2? Yeah… we’d get absolutely crushed.”58BLADES also said that the extra time would mean Handmancers will launch with an extra boss and more “polish” and “balance work,” explaining t