You'll Never Quit Slay the Spire. Here's Why

Have you ever wondered why you keep returning to Slay the Spire? Why no other roguelike deckbuilder comes close? This video has the answers.

0:00 Intro
1:30 Early Development
3:24 Single Player Benefits
5:57 The Issue of Bloat
7:36 Infinite Variability
9:20 Genre History
11:36 Beginner Friendly
13:57 UI Excellence
17:30 Roguelike Design
20:26 Making Losing Fun
24:31 Early Access Launch
26:55 Balancing Act

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Description:

Discover the secrets behind the enduring appeal of Slay the Spire in our latest deep dive video! As seasoned Slay the Spire players, you've likely spent countless hours climbing the Spire, and wondered why no other roguelike deck-builder quite matches Slay the Spire's allure. In this video, we explore why Slay the Spire stands out, delving into the innovative game development approach of Mega Crit's founders, Casey Yano and Anthony Giovannetti.

Learn about the early days of Mega Crit, where the duo left their IT jobs in Seattle to create Slay the Spire, a game that quickly became a favorite among deck-building enthusiasts. We discuss the meticulous playtesting process that shaped Slay the Spire, the influence of card game mechanics in Slay the Spire, and the benefits of Slay the Spire's single-player design.

Understand how Mega Crit balanced the complexity of Slay the Spire with accessible mechanics and a user-friendly interface, making Slay the Spire enjoyable for both new players and seasoned veterans. We also cover Megacrit's unique difficulty progression system in Slay the Spire, from battling the Corrupted Heart to the ascension levels, ensuring that Slay the Spire players always have new goals to strive for.

Our video highlights the history of the deck-building roguelike genre, tracing its roots back to Dream Quest and showcasing how Slay the Spire polished and expanded upon these foundations. We reveal Slay the Spire's thoughtful design choices, like the intent system and map generation, which enhance player strategy and replayability.

Finally, we dive into the vibrant Slay the Spire community, including the robust modding scene that adds endless variety and replayability to Slay the Spire.

[oberonjr]

Yes I will. When Slay the Spire 2 comes out

[missingno_fgc]

Important correction regarding winnability! Forgotten Arbiter was not trying to prove how many seeds are winnable, merely to find one seed he could easily prove was definitely unwinnable. To do so, he set a very narrow set of criteria that he knew could set up an impossible early Lagavulin, then brute force searched for a seed with those exact criteria. This doesn't mean that every other seed is definitely winnable, just that he didn't find another seed with that exact Lagavulin fight.

Proving how many other seeds are winnable is pretty much combinatorically impossible to solve. All we know is that there is *at least* one seed that we could successfully prove to be unwinnable.

[kayaaa]

I like that the bosses and elites are there to test out you deck's abilities - like the Act 1 elites and bosses are there to test your damage, Act 3 bosses each prohibit a different playstyle and force you to scale quickly - the Time Eater bans your infinites and forces you to play less cards, Donu and Deca scale really fast while flooding your deck with statuses and the Awakened One prohibits you from killing it in a burst while also hating powers, so setting up for the second phase is difficult. Then the Heart tests out your survivability in the first three turns and then scales so fast you need to adapt to that. All of the game's obstacles are designed so well, I love it.

[demyurgeAN]

For me it's also the simplicity of STS that makes it so good. Cards' texts are simple, keywords are limited, and synergies don't feel forced. Most games that tried to imitate or improve it tried to added too many layers of complexity which made them less pleasant to play because of mental overload.

[erikkelley]

Just started playing in 2024 cant believe ive been missing out on such an addicting game for so long

[duhsbo]

I have two thousand hours on this game. And after seeing this video, its just amazing how a team of only 2 people drove a beta process so amazing that put AAA studios to shame.

And the balancing may explain why I don't explain the mods so much. I respect the effort, but the balancing of vanilla it's unmatched

[mikehawk]

As a mainly YuGiOh player, a card game with no set rotation and like 10, 000 cards, I definitely agree that it's best to keep the card pool manageable in order to facilitate both draft and a relatively friendly new player experience. I can't tell you how many times I've tried to get friends into YuGiOh and they look at the insane learning curve mixed with thousands of cards with paragraphs of text and say "yeah that's a no from me dawg" 😅😂

[vitorcustodio]

StS is the closest any videogame has ever come to perfection.

Not saying it's the 100% best, but it's the most flawless in it's genre

[KhristianBolano]

I have roughly 275 hours in Slay the Spire. Not the highest amount for me or for any player of this game, but I had SO much fun. I kinda want to replay it lol.

I completed the game in Ascension 20 + Heart with the Defect, reached A20 with Ironclad as well. It's amazing how you can make the same deck concept with common key core cards but a way different run and win conditions sometimes. Or even make a completely different deck that is actually strong enough to make you overcome all the diverse difficulties a run can offer.

BTW, the April 2024 spike of players was because they announced Slay the Spire 2 in that same month. It's actually crazy

[silentrocco]

I always return to Dream Quest. To me a more fun, more unpredictable experience. And I love its short sessions, and the immediate readability of its simple card art. My forever game. Playing StS afterwards, it simply didn‘t get me hooked.

[dubbsyubbsy]

I have about 30 hours on Steam, where I first played it... but then I got it on mobile, where I'm now at 475 hrs lmao, this game is practically my daily driver. Most of my pals agree that Slay the Spire is probably the best "desert island" game to pick for many of the reasons you outline here. ("If you were stuck on an island with only one game, what would you take?")

[GreyWithCreamium]

I'm at 1k+ hours now across PC, PS and iOS. I didn't think I'd ever have a 'forever' game, a game I could always replay, but StS is that for me. I've done tons of A20 runs on all characters but even then I still always come back. It never gets old, it may be my favorite game of all time. The sequel has some mighty big shoes to fill.

[FrescaLife]

1300 hours. Used to play a lot of MtG mainly for the deckbuilding and the draft format, but the pay-to-win nature of it and the need for an opponent eventually drove me away. You pay hundreds for good decks/cards, and get to use them once a week if you're lucky. Even online people would do messed up stuff like go afk when they realize they're losing instead of just conceding so you have to wait out the full 25 mins of their clock. StS fixed almost all of the design issues with MtG such as mana screw/flood, and got rid of having to wait on an opponent. It also has this perfect easy to learn, difficult to master complexity. You pay 15 bucks when it's on sale, one time, and you can play StS infinitely. That's just the vanilla version. Certainly my favorite game of all time as of writing this.

[riverstarmusic]

Seeing their story makes me hope the an indie group would pick me to be their musician 😂

I love this game, but I love that the devs stuck with it for so long even more!

[ploffintagpro]

I don't think that the original TBOI was obscure about what items did by mistake, to me it was clearly a part of the experience Ed was going for and I personally think it was a very interesting and fun choice.

And while StS has no shortage of impressive design choices, I don't see that one as particularly impressive; things being descriptive is just a basic part of any card game.

[nilesamon]

The Slay the Spire boardgame is also pretty good. While it doesn't offer any new content it is fun to play this beloved game cooperatively.

[sodakan]

Wow this is a crazy high quality how does this guy not have more subs

[HonRedMan]

Dead cells and slay the spire were the first games I bought on Steam. Although I had played hundreds of hours of pirated games before that. These games made me think "I want to pay the developers money". And since then, I've only played games I've bought)

[Avonus]

2000 hours and about half of those are with modded characters. It's stupid how good this game is.

[loliceblocks]

Balatro is a close second in my heart. Dicey Dungeons was also decent.