Dreamcards launches on Steam with a deck built from memories

Dreamcards is now available on Steam. The debut game from Brazilian studio Soneka Games puts a personal twist on the roguelike deckbuilder: instead of building around a party of warriors or a pile of weapons, you guide a withdrawn protagonist called Self through recurring dreams and assemble a deck from the people and experiences that shape their life. The game launched on August 19, 2026 for PC at US$9.99, £9.09, and €10.25, with a limited-time 15% launch discount. A free demo remains available.

The central idea is simple to explain but unusual in practice. Mother, Father, Sibling, Best Friend, Lover, and Grandparent become Character cards, while shared experiences become Action cards. Each relationship offers a strategic starting point, but the systems are deliberately open. Drawing cards, gaining actions, buying cards, converting resources, expanding the deck, and replaying cards can feed into one another, allowing a promising interaction to grow into an oversized engine.

Runs move through seven days and seven nights. During the day, you revisit relationships and shape the deck. At night, the Monster Within disrupts the plan with effects that can raise shop prices, shrink your opening hand, increase Action costs, or interfere with the discard pile. The objective is to reach a Lucid Dream before the Nightmare takes over. The challenge is therefore not only about reducing an enemy health bar, but about protecting the engine that makes your deck work.

Dreamcards also separates itself through presentation. Soneka Games tells Self's story without dialogue, narration, or explanatory text. More than 200 hand-drawn illustrations and animations use expressions, gestures, dream imagery, tarot influences, and Brazilian cordel inspiration to leave the emotional reading partly with the player. That makes the game a particularly clear fit for deckbuilder fans who want a strong visual identity alongside experimentation.

The Steam launch is the first public version, not a promise of a finished review verdict. Steam currently lists no user reviews, so the most useful way to approach Dreamcards today is through its free demo and its unusual premise. If the relationship-based cards and wordless memories work for you, the full game offers ten difficulty levels, card mastery, evolving archetypes, and plenty of room to push a build beyond its original shape.