Shroom and Gloom Preview

Back at the end of 2024, I compiled a list of the best looking and most anticipated deck-builders scheduled for release in 2025. One of the games on that list was an extremely unique looking first person, dungeon crawling, rogue-like, deck-builder known as Shroom and Gloom from Team Lazerbeam, a small 8 person team from Cape Town, South Africa.

At that point in time, Shroom and Gloom was only a small prototype, which it probably still is. But the big news is that Team Lazerbeam have just announced that Devolver Digital will be publishing Shroom and Gloom, which is great news for the studio and for fans of deck-builders. Not only does this mean that the team will be able to take something that was initially created in a game jam in 2021 into a full product, but it also is a great indication of the quality of the the game beyond what most people have seen as Devolver Digital have a pretty good track record of signing games with unique ideas and solid gameplay.

WHAT IS SHROOM AND GLOOM?

Shroom and Gloom is a first person, rogue-like, dungeon crawling, deck-builder. It has the staples of deck-builders that you are familiar with including upgrading cards, getting rewards at the end of combat and resting to heal along the way during your journey. However, Shroom and Gloom feels anything but familiar and ordinary.

Shroom and Gloom is instantly captivating with very strong sense of identity thanks to it’s combination of a bold art style and the unique first person perspective, that is an extreme rarity in the deck-building genre.

Shroom and Gloom also features a very moody tone and immaculate atmosphere. Both are definitely common elements of Devolver Digital published titles. The soundtrack features subtle synth and the sound direction is immersive. You can practically feel your socks getting wet as you trudge your way through the dungeons.

However, the gameplay is the real focal point as it features two separate decks. One for combat, as well as a different deck to pillage and explore the dungeons. Having two decks provides a much more meaningful gameplay impact than I was expecting. It feels almost like two different games combined as strategy is needed for exploration as well. This is likely just the tip of the iceberg, but during exploration you have the choice to use a key to open a lock, if you have the card, but there is also the ability to bash the lock open, at the cost of doing damage to yourself. It’s easy to imagine choices like this becoming increasingly difficult as you must weigh risk vs reward. Cards can also be infinitely upgraded, which means customization is endless and broken builds are possible.

You don’t need to take my word, Shroom and Gloom currently has a demo available on Steam with early access planned for late 2025. However, it was just at the end of 2024 that the studio said that Shroom and Gloom was in prototype phase and the start of the demo says expect some jankiness, so set expectations accordingly as it isn’t the smoothest experience at the moment, but it shows extremely high potential.