Gibbonfiend Studios’ upcoming PC strategy game mixes card-driven battles, ship construction, crew management, and modular destruction.
There is a nasty little strategy hook at the center of Hunt of the Reptorians: your ship is not just the thing you are trying to keep alive, it is also the deck you bring into battle.
Developed and published by Gibbonfiend Studios, the upcoming PC title is a sci-fi roguelite deckbuilder where every crew member, turret, shield, module, and ship system can shape the cards available during a run.
In the background story imagined by the devs, humanity has been pushed into a grim situation after the Reptorians capture Earth, and the player’s objective is to return home strong enough to challenge the Reptorian fleet.
Hunt of the Reptorians ties progression directly to the vessel itself. Adding turrets, point defense systems, shields, and other devices expands the player’s arsenal, while crew members can level up and provide skill cards.
Modules add passive or situational bonuses, and research lets players reverse-engineer Reptorian technology to unlock stronger weapons and defensive options. In practice, the build is both a spaceship and a card engine.
Combat is where the game starts to separate itself from more traditional card battlers. Cards are used to command the ship, but projectiles then travel between vessels in real time. Point defense cannons can shoot down incoming fire, shields can absorb hits, and specialized tools such as grav turrets can alter the path of a volley before it lands.
Hits are designed to damage precise parts of a ship, rewarding players for concentrating fire on weak spots, breaching armor, and exposing the vulnerable interior. Damage can also persist across the campaign until the player reaches a station to repair it.
Players will also need to decide where crew members should be during combat: an engineer can stay at a post to improve engine performance, but that same character may be needed elsewhere if the hull is damaged or a fire starts spreading through the ship.
Enemy vessels are also built from functional parts, so destroying weapon mounts can stop them from firing, damaging engines can reduce their ability to evade, and spotting a gap in armor or shields can create an opening for a decisive strike.
Hunt of the Reptorians is an interesting project I will surely keep following and share any updates. In the meantime, you can wishlist it on PC via Steam.
