The creator of Nowhere Prophet is back, and this time the target is demonic billionaires. Martin Nerurkar of Sharkbomb Studios has announced that Crownbreakers — his tactical deckbuilding-brawler set in a spiritpunk world — launches on Kickstarter on May 12. A demo is already playable on Steam for anyone who wants to stress-test the combat before the campaign goes live.
Fighting Tyrants One District at a Time
The setup doesn’t try to disguise its politics. Crownbreakers drops players into a spiritpunk city where tyrants have literally built an economy around stealing souls — grinding them into profit while the city suffers. Your job is to take a crew of champions into each district, beat the ruling tyrant, and share the spoils back with the community. Runs clock in at roughly 20 to 30 minutes each, which keeps the loop snappy and lets the game stack complexity without demanding marathon sessions.
Champions, Cards, and Stickers
The combat puts your champion’s actions and your card hand in direct conversation, rather than running them as separate layers. You’re knocking enemies into each other, lining them up for area-of-effect blasts, chaining explosive barrels, and building momentum as the battlefield itself advances each turn — uncovering new obstacles, enemies, and rewards as you push forward.
Rare cards and relics extend your build in ways any strategy card game fan will find familiar. What’s less familiar is the sticker system: physical modifiers you apply directly to cards to raise their damage, add new effects, or broaden their area of effect. Individual decks feel genuinely distinct as a result, rather than just different permutations of the same meta picks. Combined with the turn-based tactical combat layer underneath, there’s considerably more going on here than the elevator pitch suggests.
What the Kickstarter Is Actually For
Nerurkar has been upfront that core development on Crownbreakers is already fully funded — self-financed, with additional support from MFG Baden-Württemberg and the European Union. The Kickstarter is targeting additional features and scope, not a greenlight for a project that’s still on paper. That distinction matters to anyone who’s been burned by campaigns that were essentially concept pitches. Crownbreakers has a playable demo and has been in active development since mid-2023. The money goes toward making it bigger, not getting it off the ground.
The campaign goes live May 12. Try the demo on Steam now if you want to see the systems in action before backing. It’s a strong moment for PC strategy — Heroes of Might and Magic: Olden Era is still in its early access window and worth your time while you wait. Keep an eye on the latest strategy game news as the launch approaches, and check out everything else worth playing at Strategygame.org.