It seems like there’s a compelling new roguelike releasing daily these days, but even in the increasingly crowded space, Pengonauts’ StarVaders is a title that’s deserving of players’ attention. Part turn-based tactics game and part deckbuilding roguelite, StarVaders is an immediately accessible and satisfying experience that provides consistently worthwhile rewards and progression without ever feeling like it requires a significant investment of players’ time. But don’t just take my word for it. A quick look at StarVaders‘ Steam Store Page shows that the title is already resonating strongly with players for all the reasons I’ve already mentioned and more.
Currently sitting at 95% “Very Positive” with almost 100 reviews, StarVaders is one of 2025’s indie highlights, and it’s made all the more impressive when you learn that it’s developer Pengonauts’ debut title. Along with getting the chance to write StarVaders‘ review, I recently got to ask key members from the team at Pengonauts some questions regarding the game’s origins and design philosophy. Unsurprisingly, a large part of StarVaders‘ quality comes from the fact that many of the team members at Pengonauts were all friends with a passion for game design who went into the project with a clear vision and purpose, and it shows. The following transcript has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Pengonauts’ Origins and the Genesis of StarVaders
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Q: How did the team at Pengonauts get together and decide to make a game?
A: Our team started out as friends long before we formed Pengonauts. We’ve worked on a slew of projects together in the form of game jams, discarded prototypes, and abandoned ideas before we decided to commit to StarVaders as our first commercial project.
StarVaders was started as a side project for all of us while we worked our regular day jobs. But thanks to the momentum it organically picked up, we were fortunate enough to be able to make the leap to full-time development in 2023!
Q: How did StarVaders come about? Was the team’s goal always to make a turn-based tactics/deck-builder hybrid?
A: We had a bunch of ideas before StarVaders came along, but we didn’t really set out to make any specific genre. The core gameplay was inspired by various tabletop games we were playing at the time, and we knew that we would be good at doing a deck builder because of our past experience with playing card games, so we thought it was a great fit for our team.
Securing StarVaders’ Publisher
Q: How did the partnership with publishers Joystick Ventures and Playworks come to fruition?
A: Our partnership with Joystick Ventures (JV) was a pretty incredible stroke of luck in hindsight. We had just put up our first public demo on Itch.io, and the next day, we received an email from JV to have a meeting. We never really planned to look for publishers, and so we were shocked to have one reach out to us as soon as we went public. It also just so happened that the first publisher we spoke to was also the best fit for our needs!
As for Playworks, they are a China regional publishing team that has worked with JV in the past, so the partnership came naturally.
Breaking Down StarVaders’ Mechanics & Game Design
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Q: Can you walk us through the different pilots in StarVaders and how each of their playstyles connects to the different class archetypes of a classic TRPG?
A: In StarVaders, you get to choose your mech and a pilot to control the mech. Each Mech is equivalent to a different class archetype, while the pilots add more specific mechanics to the gameplay as well. So we have 3 mechs:
- The Gunner is the first one you play as, a big, bulky mech that has high firepower, bombs, and an overheat mechanic that lets it do big, powerful attacks with consequences for later. This is the equivalent of a bruiser or warrior.
- The Stinger is a ninja-like mech that can throw cards onto the grid and craft complex combos by chaining multiple cards into each other in melee range. This is your agility-focused mech, a ranger or duelist.
- The Keeper is the last mech, a magic-focused summoner that can possess summons to do its bidding on the grid and cast powerful spells. The classic mage archetype!
Each mech really changes up the game, not only in the cards you play with, but with the core way you interact with the board. It’s hard to explain how truly different they are to play, I like to say it’s like we made 3 games and sold them all together.
Merging Turn-Based Tactics With a Deckbuilding Roguelite
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Q: When designing StarVaders, what were some of the biggest challenges in merging the more strategic, tactical gameplay of a TRPG with the elements of a roguelike deck-builder?
A: The biggest worry I had when starting the game was the complexity of merging two very tactical genres together. I think it would have been very easy to make something that feels twice as complex — what we did was make sure to only keep mechanics that were necessary and focus on the intuitive aspects of the game.
For example, we cut out all HP and damage values from the game; everything is basically one-hit kills, which simplifies the math part of the game and leaves room for both the grid and cards for more complexity.
So really, it’s all about being careful about what mechanics to keep from both genres and being okay with removing things that aren’t working.
Q: StarVaders’ combat immediately brings to mind other TRPG/Roguelike classics like Into the Breach and The Land Beneath Us. What were some of the primary gameplay inspirations for StarVaders’ design?
A: Into the Breach has definitely been a big inspiration in terms of its design philosophy. We followed a lot of the same types of thought processes when designing our game, with a focus on clarity and intuition, simple effects, small numbers, etc.
Q: In addition to its strong gameplay pull, StarVaders has a unique visual identity and compelling art style. What were some of the major influences on StarVaders’ art direction and hand-drawn visuals?
A: StarVaders‘ art has been heavily influenced by a lot of old-school anime, as well as arcade games. We had a strong focus on visual clarity and also wanted to make something that is bright and colorful, optimistic.
Striking a Balance With StarVaders’ Roguelike Progression & Narrative
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Q: StarVaders has a surprising amount of narrative elements present in its gameplay. What are some of the major challenges in introducing narrative into a genre like the roguelike that has a lot of inherent randomness?
A: As you touched on, roguelikes have some inherent structural challenges when it comes to storytelling. Each player will progress through the game at a different pace, depending on their skill level. It’s possible to reach the true ending of our game within 4 runs for some players, while others might need to spend much more time with StarVaders before they can complete it. The pacing of the story needs to work for both types of players.
Another challenge is that our game has over 10 pilots, and the player can freely choose which pilot they want to play as for each run. It’s entirely possible for a player to decide to only ever play one pilot. This means that the main story beats have to be independent from the player’s choice of pilot. But at the same time, we wanted to showcase the unique personalities and backstories of our pilots, since I believe that engaging characters are what truly make a world feel alive and immersive. We decided to give each of our pilots 3 memory scenes — unlocked by winning runs with them — that will reveal the events that made them into who they are today while showcasing their unique and quirky personalities!
Dialing in StarVaders’ Progression Loop
Q: StarVaders’ gameplay is fast and satisfying, making it easy to play in short bursts as well as longer sessions. How did the team strike a balance between meaningful gains in the short-term versus longer, more tangible meta-progression?
A: We have a strong focus on making sure each individual session is a satisfying and contained experience. The meta-progression is really there to help the players slowly learn the game and have access to more complex mechanics over time, but the core ideal we would want is for players to play without the feeling that they are playing for long term in-game progress — rather, they should be playing to discover what combos and builds they can create during the current session, or playing to improve themselves and learn better tactics over time.
Looking to the Future
Q: What’s next for Pengonauts after StarVaders’ launch? Are there any plans to try and bring the game to consoles following its PC debut?
A: We’re still looking at bringing the games to console and mobile, but nothing is set in stone yet. We will also be working on a new game! We have tons of ideas and experiments we want to try, and are excited to play around in the prototyping phase again.
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