There are plenty of tactical RPGs where movement matters, but Canvas City takes that idea somewhere a little different. Here, getting from one side of the battlefield to the other means grinding rails, hitting ramps, chaining tricks, and trying to look good while you outmaneuver the opposing crew.
Developed by New Zealand studio Disc 2 Games, Canvas City is getting a free Steam demo on August 24, 2026, giving players access to the first half of its opening act. That includes the tutorial, four levels, six playable members of the Fire Starters, and more than two hours of gameplay.
The premise fits the colorful presentation. Canvas City has lost much of its identity under corporate control, with public art and music pushed out of the streets. The Fire Starters are one of the crews trying to bring some life back to the place, using graffiti, skating, and a competitive discipline called Spark Skating to make their presence felt.
Tactical combat and roller skating aren’t exactly a pairing you come across every day, and that alone gives Canvas City a personality of its own.
Skating Is Part of the Combat
The most interesting part of Canvas City is how closely movement and combat are tied together.
You don’t simply select a tile and walk toward it. Each turn can involve rails, ramps, aerial tricks, and special abilities, allowing characters to carve a route through the arena before finishing their move exactly where you need them.
Pulling off tricks also generates Style Points, so taking the flashier route can have a genuine tactical benefit.
Those points feed into stronger abilities, which means positioning isn’t only about finding cover or getting closer to an enemy. Sometimes the best path is the one that lets you squeeze a few extra tricks into the turn.
Then there are Tag Spots. Claiming one generates Style Points for the whole crew, but opponents can skate over and steal it back. That gives each battle another small tug-of-war happening alongside the main objectives. You might have a good attacking position, only to realize that leaving a Tag Spot uncontested is slowly handing momentum back to the other team.
Six Characters and Three Classes in the Demo
The demo introduces six Fire Starters covering all three character classes, with the crew able to reach Level 8 during the available portion of the game.
Characters gradually pick up new skills, with as many as four abilities available per crew member in the demo. There are also Magazines hidden behind battle rewards, which unlock additional aerial and rail tricks.
Those new moves aren’t purely cosmetic. Expanding a character’s skating repertoire gives you more ways to navigate each arena and piece together longer or more efficient turns.
That should also make replaying older missions worthwhile. Completed battles can be tackled again for bonus objectives and additional Followers, giving players a reason to return with a stronger crew and experiment with routes they couldn’t use the first time around.
The full version is planned to expand considerably beyond what is available here, with 12 recruitable characters and more than 80 abilities and skating tricks currently advertised.
For now, though, the demo should give a pretty clear idea of what Canvas City is trying to do. It’s a tactical RPG built around familiar ideas, but the skating system gives those mechanics an identity of their own.
I’ll definitely be interested to see whether all these ideas come together once the demo is available, because on paper Canvas City has one of the more unusual tactical RPG concepts I’ve seen recently.
The Canvas City demo launches on Steam on August 24, 2026. The full game is currently in development for PC and Nintendo Switch, with a final release date still to be announced.
