For our 6th developer interview, we have a pair of brothers from Kazakhstan who form Stygian Games, a small studio with an ambitious first game! Arcane Path was a joy to try out during the June Next Fest 2025. I was moved by the passion and hard work these two put in. Read on to learn more about the blood, sweat, and tears put into Arcane Path, you can wishlist the game and try the demo on Steam! (Release planned for Q3 of this year)
1. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer this interview! Could we get a quick introduction to you and Stygian Games?
Stygian Games is a small indie studio from Kazakhstan, made up of two brothers. Eldos is in charge of art and working with the game engine. Nurik focuses on the narrative and story.
2. What sparked the conceptualisation of Arcane Path?
Nurik: The idea for Arcane Path actually came to me the night before an exam. I spent all night playing Slay the Spire, and then I had a dream about a card roguelike that used tarot cards. After I woke up (and completely failed the exam), I went to my brother, who was just thinking about what kind of game we should make first. That’s how Arcane Path started, even though now the game is totally different from that original idea, pretty much the only thing that’s left is that it’s still a card-based roguelike.
3. The art in Arcane Path is particularly stunning! How was the art created for this game and were there any media that were of strong influence to its style?
Eldos: Thank you! Really glad you liked the visuals. I put a lot of heart into them. I drew a lot of inspiration from Riot’s work, especially Arcane, Ruined King, and some of the splash art from League of Legends. There’s something very expressive and slightly storybook-like in their style that I’ve always admired, and I tried to bring a bit of that into Arcane Path.
Instead of using standard PBR (Physically based rendering) materials, I went with a fully hand-painted approach. Everything is done through color, light, and shadow, without relying on metallic or roughness maps. That gave the world a more stylized and moody feel, which fits the tone of the game better.
4. What game engine is Arcane Path designed on and why?
Eldos: I chose Unreal Engine 5.3 for Arcane Path mainly because I had prior experience with it. That made development a lot smoother. When you’re a small team, it’s important to move quickly and not spend weeks learning a brand new tool.
One of the big advantages of Unreal is its Marketplace, especially for VFX. We don’t rely on it for everything, but it’s saved us a lot of time on certain effects. Using high-quality assets selectively helps us get strong visuals without burning through all our time and energy, which really matters when you’re a small indie studio.
5. How did you balance the difficulty level of a game like Arcane Path?
Eldos: First, my brother and I create the strongest build we can imagine, thinking through everything it can achieve and what is required for it to work. We plan out all the necessary elements such as cards, statuses, and synergies that support this build. After this, we just keep playing, testing how the balance feels and whether the game encourages interesting deckbuilding or forces everyone into one path. For us, card roguelikes are really about the experience of assembling a build, so balance comes down to how enjoyable and fair that process is during play.
6. Are there any media or games that had a significant influence on Arcane Path’s world, characters, and story?
Nurik: My brother and I really liked the look of Piltover in Arcane, so that’s why our game has dolls, gears, and similar details. We figured this kind of world is a good fit for magic, which makes it easy to use cards as part of the gameplay. To make the magic feel real, we started reading about things like the Kabbalah, hermetic texts, and Crowley. From there, we naturally got interested in different mythologies from across Eurasia, like Norse poetry and old Indian epics. Arcane mostly inspired the visuals, but the story and themes are based on all those esoteric texts and myths.
7. What are some features in Arcane Path that are its defining strengths and/or features?
Eldos: At the core of Arcane Path is build variety. The game features twelve unique artifacts that completely change how you play, kind of like picking a class in Slay the Spire. One build focuses on generating tons of mana and drawing extra cards, while another rewards risky plays where you try to win fights in a single hit while staying at low health.
On top of that, there are combat gems and one-time-use cards you can find during events. All these systems give a lot of room to experiment, try out weird combos, and discover new strategies every run. That feeling of messing around with different ideas and seeing what works best is a big part of what makes the game fun.
8. As the first game published under Stygian Games, what were some challenges you had to overcome and what are your hopes for this first release?
Eldos: Making Arcane Path has been a real challenge, especially since it’s our first game. The hardest part was probably the sheer amount of visual work. I have an artist background, but even with that, keeping the quality consistent with so little time and energy was really exhausting at times. Balancing everything was also tough. There are twelve different artifact builds, lots of cards, gems, and enemies. Tuning all of it so that each run feels fair but still gives room for creative strategies is something we’re still working on. Like most small indie teams, me and my brother also struggled with stuff like setting up proper playtests, getting useful feedback, and especially getting the word out. Reaching people isn’t easy these days.
Nurik: We’re trying to stay realistic with our expectations. We don’t expect any big breakthrough, even though we’ve put over a year of our lives into this. The main hope is to earn enough to keep Stygian Games alive for at least another year and start building our next project. And if we can find even a small group of players who really connect with the game and want to see what we do next, that would mean a lot. This release feels more like a starting point than a finish line.
9. What kind of gaming experience do you hope Arcane Path players will have?
Eldos: For me, games are a form of fiction, and I think any fiction needs at least some story or lore. Every game has it, whether in a big or small way. If a game has too little story, we personally get bored with pure gameplay pretty quickly. But if a game barely has any gameplay and is mostly reading, it can feel just as dull. In that case, it might be better just to watch a movie or anime. That’s why I hope Arcane Path will appeal to players who are not satisfied with games that are only about mechanics with almost no story, and also to those who find purely narrative games like visual novels uninteresting. We want to strike a real balance: a deckbuilding roguelike with solid gameplay, but also an interesting story and characters. There are dialogues and bits of lore to discover, so it is something in between pure gameplay and pure story
10. Where can we subscribe to the progress and news about Arcane Path and future upcoming games?
Nurik: You can follow the progress and news about Arcane Path or future projects on our Twitter account or our Bluesky account. But the main channels are our Discord server and YouTube channel. On Discord, you can chat with us directly and ask anything about the game. On YouTube, we’re planning to share not only trailers and announcements but also other interesting videos related to the project.
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These down-to-earth brothers took a great effort to reply to this interview and were a joy to correspond with. Please support them through their socials mentioned above and keep a lookout for the release of Arcane Path, coming later this year! With the rise of deckbuilding roguelikes and gorgeous art in games, budding gamedevs may find great insight in the Stygian Games’ art direction and balance. Creating a game is no easy task! Especially so for a team as small as 2.
Hime is always looking for new games to spotlight! If you’re working on a game and are interested in an interview with me, please send a request or inquiry to himetokki@gmail.com. Thank you dear viewers for the continued interest in this series!
Art for today’s banner by 1a1aCthulhu