Below the Crown, the dungeon-crawling chess roguelite and IGF 2026 Honorable Mention for Excellence in Design, conjures sharp strategies and powerful spells for its 1.0 release on PC via Steam on Tuesday, 21 April 2026.
Dive into a fresh, approachable, and magical take on a 1,500-year-old classic. Take on tactical challenges in retro-inspired dungeons as one clever Wizard with a party of traditional and inventive chess pieces. Build out each Wizard’s repertoire with additional runes, upgrades, spells, skills, and final boss debuting in 1.0.
Explore the dungeons Below the Crown, in this love letter to Roguelikes, Dungeon Crawlers, and Chess. Prepare for strategy, game-changing spells, psychological tests, and challenges from your fellow players. From the award-winning creators of Duskers & A Virus Named TOM.
Please the enigmatic Emperor by casting spells and making strategic moves to capture enemy pieces. Before leaving the dungeons, answer mysterious psychological evaluations to uncover this realm’s dark secrets.
The Emperor wants gold, and you're just the wizard to get it. Journey into the depths with a Rook, an Archer, and maybe a spell or two. Upgrade your party, learn new skills yourself, and discover what’s really going on in the darkness below. Spend the gold you find to help you survive - or risk saving it for the Emperor.
Key Features
- Explore procedural dungeons with a variety of wizards with different abilities
- Outwit opponents using tactical, Chess-inspired combat
- Use powerful spells and flashy explosions to shake up the board
- Take psychological tests and wonder why. Everything is fine!
- Try Infinite and Random Dungeon Modes
- Issue challenges to other players, share replays, and compete in daily challenges against the community
System Requirements
Minimum:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10+
Processor: SSE2 instruction set support.
Graphics: DX9 (shader model 2.0) capabilities; generally everything made since 2004 should work
DirectX: Version 9.0
Storage: 850 MB available space
Recommended:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
