Burn With Me: Burn Your Cards, Summon Demons, Fire Everyone
Burn With Me launched on Steam on October 12, 2026, and it's an occult deckbuilder with a rather unpleasant twist. To make your deck stronger, you sometimes have to permanently destroy the cards you've spent your time collecting. Most deckbuilders reward you for building increasingly powerful combinations. This one occasionally hands you a box of matches and suggests that half your collection would be more useful as ashes.
Developed by Nozomu Games and published by Inner Pocket, the game follows students performing forbidden rituals, summoning demons and learning that supernatural power apparently comes with some absolutely appalling employment conditions.
Apparently sacrificing creatures for more power is becoming a popular career choice in Hell. HellSlave II takes things further with demonic pacts, tactical combat and enough buildcraft to make Satan hire an accountant. See what Hell is offering this time.
Five cards, one pentagram, and a management problem
Each ritual requires you to arrange five cards on a pentagram and reach a specific score. Positioning matters because cards can affect their neighbours, meaning your strongest creatures aren't necessarily the ones you need. A carefully arranged collection of weaker cards might accomplish more than throwing your biggest demon into the middle and hoping Satan handles the paperwork.
Then there's the burning mechanic. Sacrificing cards can provide bonuses, trigger effects or allow replacement draws. One documented example involves burning a Gemma imp to permanently increase the base values of other imps by two points within the current deck.
Now that's interesting. You've got a perfectly serviceable creature, but apparently its greatest contribution to the team is dying so everyone else can become slightly more productive. The poor bastard has barely finished signing his employment contract before management announces a restructuring. His colleagues receive a performance bonus, his position is eliminated, and HR has already booked the crematorium.
The really interesting part is that successful rituals can reward you with additional cards, potentially disrupting an arrangement that was already working. So you've won, received your reward, and now you're wondering whether you should immediately set fire to it.
Imagine winning a company car and discovering that the most sensible financial decision is driving it directly into a furnace.
It's a surprisingly clever contradiction. Progression can create problems that sacrifice subsequently solves, turning deck management into something rather more interesting than simply collecting bigger numbers.
Had enough of burning demons? Guns of Eschaton lets you shoot them instead. Unfortunately, every monster comes with an anatomy exam, and your revolver reloads at the speed of a government department. Welcome to supernatural biology class.
Cute students, forbidden rituals and questionable teaching methods
The story unfolds across six chapters, according to the developer, featuring students drawn into increasingly sinister occult activities under the guidance of a mysterious teacher. Visually, the combination of hand-drawn anthropomorphic characters and unsettling live-action footage is peculiar enough to deserve attention.
There is, however, some disagreement about how frightening it actually is. Early coverage has praised the atmosphere and puzzle mechanics, while other impressions suggest the cartoon presentation occasionally undermines the horror. The game also appears more deliberately structured and puzzle-focused than endlessly replayable roguelike deckbuilders.
Its demo received roughly 120 Steam reviews with overwhelmingly positive reception, and the developer reported 20,000 wishlists before launch. Card Gamer also awarded the full release 9/10 in its launch-day review. Encouraging signs, certainly, although it's still too early to judge how well the complete experience holds up.
What interests me most is the relationship between collecting and sacrificing. Card games have spent years teaching us to become emotionally attached to increasingly powerful decks. Burn With Me introduces the uncomfortable possibility that your favourite creature might be worth considerably more once it's dead.
And frankly, any game that manages to turn demon summoning into a corporate redundancy exercise deserves at least a closer look.
Burn With Me is available now on Steam for Windows, macOS and Linux.
Still hungry for terrible supernatural decisions? CRIMENET's Horror Games section has plenty more nightmares, monsters and situations where calling a priest would have been considerably cheaper. Find your next absolutely dreadful life choice.
Burn With Me FAQ
When was Burn With Me released?
Burn With Me launched on October 12, 2026, on Steam.
What platforms is Burn With Me available on?
The game is available on PC, supporting Windows, macOS and Linux.
How does card burning work in Burn With Me?
Burning permanently removes cards from your current deck in exchange for strategic benefits, such as strengthening other cards or enabling replacement draws. Apparently, even demons aren't safe from workplace restructuring.
Is Burn With Me a roguelike?
It uses deckbuilding mechanics, but its six-chapter structure focuses more on tactical puzzles and narrative progression than endless roguelike runs.
Is Burn With Me actually a horror game?
Yes, it features occult rituals, demon summoning and disturbing imagery. However, the horror appears more atmospheric and narrative-driven than traditional survival horror.
Does Burn With Me have a free demo?
Yes. A free demo is available on Steam, allowing players to try its ritual-based card mechanics before purchasing.
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