Steam's latest sale throws a spotlight on great games from tiny teams, including Stardew Valley and a blackjack roguelike with the Balatro dev's seal of approval

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D&D-spoofing blackjack? Sign me up

Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers
(Image credit: Purple Moss Collectors)

Another Steam sale is upon us, and while this one's not directly hosted by Valve, it is shining a fantastic spotlight on some of the best games made by tiny dev teams - including a gambling roguelike so good it's even got the Balatro dev's seal of approval.

Yogscast Games - yes, the popular streaming group has its own indie publishing label - is presenting the Tiny Teams event on Steam, highlighting "very best of video games made by small teams from around the world." It's one part sale and one part demo festival, offering discounts on released games and highlighting trial versions of unreleased titles.

But Balaltro brings us to one of the more interesting titles in this sale: the newly released Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers. This is a deckbuilding blackjack roguelike that stretches the rules of the game into an RPG-style battle system where hearts offer healing and clubs increase your damage. Naturally, you'll find all sorts of weird takes on traditional playing cards to build up a deck and break the game.

Despite sharing the idea of turning a traditional gambling game into a deckbuilding roguelike, Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers is no Balatro ripoff. This week, Balatro creator LocalThunk offered "another reminder that D&DG went public before Balatro" while giving the game a strong recommendation. Heck, Balatro's own Joker even appears in Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers, and I can't image a bigger seal of approval than that.

Dustin Bailey
Dustin Bailey
Staff Writer

Dustin Bailey joined the GamesRadar team as a Staff Writer in May 2022, and is currently based in Missouri. He's been covering games (with occasional dalliances in the worlds of anime and pro wrestling) since 2015, first as a freelancer, then as a news writer at PCGamesN for nearly five years. His love for games was sparked somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Knights of the Old Republic, and these days you can usually find him splitting his entertainment time between retro gaming, the latest big action-adventure title, or a long haul in American Truck Simulator.