Fact Sheet
- Title
- Oath of Battle: The Crossing
- Developer
- adarkfable
- Engine
- LOVE2D (Lua)
- Platform
- PC (Steam)
- Genre
- Formation Autobattler Roguelite
- Release
- Early Access 2026
- Price
- $9.99 USD
- Website
- oathofbattle.com
- Steam
- Wishlist Page
- Discord
- discord.gg/dredwork
Description
A formation autobattler roguelite framed around tarot, broken oaths, and
the cost of crossing. Draft your squad from the Major Arcana, place them
on a six-slot grid, and fight through a campaign that ends in a reading
— win or lose.
Every run begins with a question and a three-card spread. Every run ends
with an interpretation. The cards you carried, the battles you survived,
the allies you lost — the game reads your choices after the fact, the way
memory reads everything: selectively, and too late.
The Pitch
"Into the Breach meets tarot. Choose a captain, swear an oath, and march a
formation of Major Arcana through a war that remembers itself poorly. Every
run ends in a reading. Victory is solemn. Defeat is testimony."
Features
- 20 playable Major Arcana units with distinct combat identities
- 6-slot grid formation with front/back row positioning
- Synergy and bond systems that reward deliberate composition
- Captain progression with branching power choices
- Beacons — Minor Arcana support objects that reshape battles
- Battlefield conditions: heavy rain, cursed fog, burning earth, and more
- 5 game modes from standard campaign to endless war
- 6 oath modifiers that change the rules of each run
- Pre-run tarot ceremony and post-run literary reading
- AI-generated shareable readings at oathofbattle.com
- Authored narrative throughout: vignettes, campfire scenes, combat narration
- 5 visual vibes that change atmosphere, music, fonts, and shader
What Makes It Different
Tarot as Cosmology
The Major Arcana are not a skin. They are the roster, the lore, the
cosmology, and the endgame. The final boss is The World. The player
is The Fool. The spread is not decoration — it is the grammar of the
entire game.
Formation over Reflex
Combat is replayed, not played live. The important decision point is
pre-battle structure: captain choice, slot placement, synergies, bonds.
Every death was authored before the first blow landed.
The Reading
Every run ends in an AI-generated tarot reading at oathofbattle.com.
The cards interpret your choices — selectively, and too late.
Readings are shareable and unique to every run.
Built with AI
Oath of Battle: The Crossing was built by a solo developer using AI as a creative
partner. The game itself uses AI to generate post-run readings —
making AI part of the player experience, not just the pipeline.
The Developer Story
Oath of Battle: The Crossing was made by one person — a 40-year-old Black developer
with no degree, who lost his job to AI and decided to use AI to build a
game instead. The tarot framing is autobiographical. The Fool is the
developer. The Fool is also the player. The crossing is real.
The game was built in months, not years. It was built with AI as a
creative partner — not as a replacement for craft, but as a way to
attempt something that would otherwise have been impossible alone.
Influences
Into the Breach (formation matters), Slay the Spire (roguelite structure),
Tarot (cosmology and framing), Darkest Dungeon (tone and consequence).
Screenshots & Assets
Full capsule art, logo, and additional gameplay captures available on request.
About adarkfable
adarkfable makes authored interactive experiences with literary ambition.
Oath of Battle: The Crossing is the first release.
