Crooked

Crooked is a noir roguelite strategy game built on the world’s simplest game rockpaperscissors and its oldest strategy: cheating. You climb five venues of underground rockpaperscissors by any means necessary. Peek at throws, distract the ref, bribe the house, break a finger. Read every hustler’s tell, bet on every match in the room, and whatever you do don’t get caught. It’s a tense, darkcomedy game where the only rule is: don’t get caught.

The Core Gameplay

Every match takes only a few seconds, but your choices ripple through the entire night. You’re not just playing rockpaperscissors you’re managing suspicion, reading opponents, and deciding when to play clean and when to cheat. Each cheat raises your suspicion meter. Get caught, and you lose health; a single failed cheat can end your run. The tension comes from balancing risk and reward, and the whole experience hinges on feel how suspicious is too suspicious, and how punishing should an opponent be before it stops being fun.

Cheats and Tells

The game features around 20 cheats to pull off, including peeking at throws, distracting the referee, swapping your gestures, or using the forbidden fourth hand sign. Every hustler has their own personality, behavior patterns, and tells that give them away. You have to learn to read them, or you’ll be the one getting played. Each boss has their own unique dirty tricks, and the five venues escalate in difficulty from a backalley game all the way up to a boss confrontation.

Roguelite Structure and Progression

Crooked is a roguelite through and through. You unlock permanent content as you play, including a roster of 5 mechanically distinct playable characters, each with a unique passive ability. You can bet on every match in the room, and the betting economy is a core part of the tension reading the table and beating the house is its own skill. The runbased structure is complete and built to be replayed, with achievements, multiple save profiles, and a UI localized into 10 languages.

Early Access and Development

Crooked is currently in Early Access, and the developer is upfront about what that means. The core game is fully playable now not a prototype or a vertical slice. The full game loop is here and stable. The developer chose Early Access so that balance, difficulty curve, and betting economy could be tuned alongside real players rather than guesses. The Early Access period is planned to last roughly 2 to 3 months. The full version is planned to add a dedicated Story Mode with characterdriven arcs and branching choices, expand the content roster with more opponents, cheats, events, and venue atmosphere/music, refine balance across the full ladder of opponents, and deepen localization with nativespeaker review.

AI Content Disclosure

The developer openly discloses that music and sound effects were AIgenerated (Suno / ElevenLabs) and edited by the developer. AI (Claude Code) was also used as a coding assistant during development. No AI content is generated live during gameplay all assets are fixed and authored before release.

System Requirements

Crooked was released on July 31, 2026. System requirements are mercifully low: Windows 10 (64bit), a dualcore x8664 processor at ~2.0 GHz, 2 GB RAM (4 GB recommended), and any GPU supporting Vulkan, OpenGL 3.3, or DirectX 11 integrated Intel HD 4000+ is fine. You’ll only need 500 MB of storage space.

Reception

The game is very new and currently has only a handful of user reviews. Early feedback has been positive one aggregator lists it at 100% positive based on 2 reviews, describing it as “Overwhelmingly Positive.” One Steam Community review called it “a cool little game filled to the brim with depth and charm” and noted that it “runs perfect on the Steam Deck.” Another comparison site noted that it “currently scores better on value relative to its quality and price.” That said, the community is still tiny, so there’s no broad consensus yet on how it plays longterm.

Who’s It For?

If you love roguelites that reward reading your opponent and managing risk think Balatro or Inscryption but you want something with a noir atmosphere and a darkcomedy edge, this is exactly your kind of game. If you enjoy the tension of bluffing, cheating, and pushing your luck until it breaks, the suspicion system and betting economy deliver that in spades. It’s also for players who appreciate solodeveloped indie projects with a clear vision and a developer who actively wants your feedback to shape the game’s future. And if you just want a cheap, snappy, endlessly replayable roguelite that respects your time and runs on almost anything, this one’s got your name on it.
If this game has piqued your curiosity, good luck securing the win!