You simply will not believe this: a new roguelike putting an addictive twist on classic mechanics has popped right the heck off on Steam. Slots & Daggers, which marinates gambling rules in some D&D sauce, has sold 100,000 copies in its first 10 days, according to its stunned solo creator.
Following recent roguelikes like [deep breath] Megabonk, Ball x Pit, Super Fantasy Kingdom, Hades 2, Clover Pit, Shape of Dreams, and frankly too many more to list, Slots & Daggers has gotten impressive mileage out of a pretty simple gameplay loop.
There are, I have reason to believe, slots and daggers. It's basically a tactical fantasy RPG played via slot machine – gearing and battles viewed through the lens of coins and levers. It's immediately fun, hits your brain a bit like Balatro, and our own Ali Jones was smitten with it on sight.
Sharing the sales news, solo dev Friedemann Allmenröder, previously known for Summer House and Pizza Possum, says he "was not expecting" 100,000 copies sold "when I sent this message to [publisher] Future Friends (was also not expecting to work on it for longer than 6 weeks so I guess I've got bad expectation skills)."
In March 2025, it seems Allmenröder bashed together a primitive prototype showing a "very silly" idea. "I was surprised by how addictive it is, given that I've worked on it for one day," he said at the time.
"Feels like something I could potentially get all the way to release in about 6 weeks and just see how it does," he added. I'll spoil it for you now: it did well.
On Steam, Allmenröder teases more to come for Slots & Daggers. For one, he says, "I’ve decided to dial back the 'aggro stop-hand' mechanic a bit, a lot of you found it frustrating and after thinking it over I agree." You'll see it less often in runs, and won't see it at all in Arena Mode.
Looking ahead, "The build is now feeling very stable and in a great place overall, so I’ll be slowing down the update pace a little over the next days. I want to take a bit of time to recover from the intense launch and then start shifting focus toward new playable content and features!"
