--- title: "Bitterlight: Descent" url: "https://aigamehub.app/en/games/i-made-a-hard-dice-driven-card-game-bitterlight-descent-free-3e1090" source: "https://www.reddit.com/r/aigamedev/comments/1x46rg4/i_made_a_hard_dicedriven_card_game_bitterlight" source_type: "reddit" author: "button_push_games" author_handle: "button_push_games" category: "Adventure" categories: ["adventure", "casual"] tags: ["beta", "card-game", "dice", "itch.io", "roguelike", "solo-dev"] added: "2026-10-16T17:14:03.521Z" updated: "2026-10-16T17:14:03.522Z" locale: "en" content_locale: "en" --- # Bitterlight: Descent A hard, dice-driven roguelike card game. Pick one of four Seekers, descend four floors of a dark ruin choosing encounter cards (fights, Trials, Events, Shops, Rests, Treasure), roll an attack die that grows from d6 to d15, and defeat each floor's Watcher. Playable in browser or as a Windows download. ## Description Bitterlight: Descent is a solo-developed, dice-driven card game set in a dark ruin. You choose one of four Seekers, each with different stats, traits and a twice-per-run Special. Each stage offers encounter cards: fights, Trials, Events, Shops, Rests and Treasure; combat uses an attack die that grows from d6 to d15 as you level. A free Observe reveals enemy tricks, and potions and Flee are also available. Statuses such as Poison and Curse add extra dice that roll alongside yours. Defeating a floor's Watcher grants the Rune's Blessing. The developer states the game was built with Claude assisting on design documents, card data, much of the GameMaker code (reviewed and tested by the developer) and the current placeholder art; music, design decisions, lore and playtesting are the developer's own. A full illustrated How to Play is in the title menu. Available as a free beta in browser or as a Windows download. ## Original post I made a hard, dice-driven card game: Bitterlight: Descent. Free beta, and I'd love your feedback. Hi all! first post here as a lurker. I'm a solo dev at Button Push Games, and today I'm opening the public beta of my first game, Bitterlight: Descent . It's on itch.io and plays in your browser (desktop, or a phone held sideways) or as a Windows download. What it is: You pick one of four Seekers and descend four floors into a dark ruin. Each floor is a run of encounter cards: fights, Trials, Events, Shops, Rests and Treasure. At the bottom of every floor a Watcher waits for you, and below all of them is the Eighth Entity. It's meant to be hard. In my simulations, careful play wins about 4 runs in 10. How to play: Choose a Seeker. Each has different stats, traits and a Special you can use twice per run. Pick your next card from the ones offered on each stage. Fight with dice. You roll your attack die, and it grows from a d6 up to a d15 as you level. Use your free Observe to learn an enemy's tricks, drink potions, or try to Flee. Watch your statuses. Poison and Curse give you extra dice that roll alongside yours and can bite at the worst moment. Beat the floor's Watcher to earn the Rune's Blessing, then keep going down. There's a full illustrated How to Play in the game's title menu. How this game was made (full transparency): I built Bitterlight with Claude. I'd rather you hear that from me up front. Me: the game idea, the original 25 GDD, and data JSON files, the world and lore, every design decision, what stays and what gets cut, all the playtesting, and building and shipping it in GameMaker. Claude: helped refine the design document and card data, wrote much of the GameMaker code with me reviewing and testing each change, ran the balance simulations, and made all of the current placeholder art. Not final: the art is placeholder and is credited to Claude in the game. A human artist will replace it for the full release. Workflow: Essentially, I started with a full day of refining the documents that I have been working on including the lore, data, GDD and other details. Then broke the project down into milestones and created a new chat with handoff documents generated within the project. Eventually, once I created all assets within GameMaker, Claude was able to write directly to those folders and I would test, commit and repeat. What I'd love feedback on: Did the difficulty feel hard but fair, or just unfair? Was anything confusing? Bugs, and which Seeker you played There's a Give Feedback button on the title screen, or use this form: Bitterlight: Descent – Beta Change Request . If something breaks, include the seed from your run summary so I can replay your exact run. Comments here or on the itch page are welcome too. Play it here: Bitterlight: Descent Bv1.2 by Button Push Games Trailer: Beta v1.2 Trailer Thanks for giving it a go! submitted by /u/button_push_games to r/aigamedev [link] [comments]