A Legendary Roguelike Gets An Unexpected Sequel
Slay the Spire has been a fixture in PC gaming for years. It has never dropped out of the PC Gamer Top 100 list since release, and it helped define the modern deckbuilding roguelike. With its mix of smart card synergies, tense runs, and huge replay value, it inspired hundreds of imitators.
Now the game most likely to challenge its legacy is its own sequel. Slay the Spire 2 is scheduled for March 2026, and according to its creators at Mega Crit Games, there was a very real chance it would never exist at all.
In a recent interview for The PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted, Mega Crit co founder Anthony Giovannetti explained how close the studio came to taking a totally different direction during the Covid years. After Slay the Spire’s success and more than a million copies sold, the future was wide open. But it was far from guaranteed that future would include a second Spire.
A Coin Flip That Changed PC Gaming
After release, the team spent a long stretch experimenting with small prototypes and tiny projects. They were having fun, but they were also looking for something deeper they could really commit to again. When it was finally time to choose a major new project, the options came down to two paths.
- One path was a completely different game, leaning more into action.
- The other was a full sequel to Slay the Spire, with all the design challenges that come with revisiting a hit.
Giovannetti was especially interested in the idea of tackling a sequel. From a design point of view, returning to a deckbuilder that so many players loved was an exciting puzzle. How do you keep the core that works, evolve the systems, and still surprise people who have seen every combo?
But instead of long debates or design documents deciding their fate, the choice came down to something much simpler: a coin flip.
They literally flipped a coin to decide whether they would make Slay the Spire 2 or move on to a brand new concept. The coin chose the sequel. If it had landed the other way, Mega Crit would be working on a completely different game and the sequel everyone now expects might not exist at all.
Adding to the story’s charm, the coin flip did not even happen in person. This all took place during the height of the pandemic, so the decision was made while the co founders were on a Discord call.
Giovannetti admits he never actually saw the coin. He just got told the result by his co founder Casey Yano. In hindsight, he jokes that trusting a remote coin flip might be “questionable,” but he believes the result was legit. Ironically, Giovannetti says Casey probably wanted the other project to win since Giovannetti has always been the card game fan while Casey leans more toward action games.
Why Slay the Spire Felt Like Unfinished Business
Even though the coin pushed them toward a sequel, Yano still had strong reasons to be on board with returning to the Spire. For him, the original game felt a bit like unfinished business.
Late in Slay the Spire’s life, supporting the game across multiple platforms became increasingly difficult. Keeping the PC version in sync with console and mobile ports turned what should have been exciting new content into a slow and complex process. Any update had to be carefully managed across every platform.
Starting fresh with new technology for Slay the Spire 2 changes that equation. A new foundation gives the team freedom to execute all the ideas that were hard to realize on the original code base. For players, that should translate into more ambitious systems, faster iteration, and a smoother flow of updates during early access and beyond.
Yano also describes himself as someone who does not spend much time dreaming about the distant future. Instead he focuses on making things that people genuinely want to play. A sequel to one of the most beloved roguelikes on PC seemed like a clear way to do exactly that, even if it meant committing to a project that would run for years.
At the time they made the call, he imagined the sequel might be done relatively quickly. Instead, the team now finds themselves four and a half years into development and still working hard. That long timeline highlights just how much they are putting into this follow up.
What To Expect From Slay the Spire 2
For players wondering how big this sequel will be, Mega Crit is already setting expectations high. Slay the Spire 2 is planned to launch in early access with a huge amount of content right from the start.
Yano describes the early access version as having more of pretty much everything:
- A lot of bosses
- A lot of enemies
- A lot of events
He suggests there may already be more content at the beginning of early access than the first game had by the time it was effectively “finished.” In his words, the starting line for Slay the Spire 2 is close to the finishing line of the original game.
At the same time, do not expect the team to give away many story or mechanics spoilers ahead of release. Yano calls himself a big “spoiler hater” and is cautious about revealing too much too early. That fits the nature of a roguelike, where discovery and experimentation are a huge part of the fun.
For PC players, the takeaway is simple. One of the most influential modern PC games is getting a sequel that almost did not happen. It was born from a mix of design curiosity, a feeling of unfinished potential, and a single coin flip during a Discord call in the middle of a pandemic.
If you love deckbuilders, roguelikes, or just smartly designed PC games that reward strategy and creativity, Slay the Spire 2 is shaping up to be one of the most important releases to watch when it hits early access in the coming months.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/games/card-games/we-ended-up-flipping-a-coin-slay-the-spire-devs-left-it-up-to-pure-chance-whether-theyd-make-a-sequel-or-something-else/
