SplinterDefenders: Splinterlands arcade deck- builder roguelike

SPLINTER DEFENDERS

What if you could pick a summoner, dodge your way through a Splinterlands-inspired arcade battlefield, and build your powers one card draw at a time?

That is the idea behind Splinter Defender, a fan-made game I have been working on for Splinter Arcade. Free Play is live now, and I would love for you to try it. This game is a roguelike deckbuilder top down arcade style shooter using real ingame asset ownership from Splinterlands.

What kind of game is it?

It is part arcade shooter, part bullet hell, and part deckbuilding roguelike. You move through waves of enemies, survive minibosses and bosses, and choose cards between waves. Your hand grows into a five-card build; drawing and upgrading cards changes your stats and abilities. The enemies bring their own Splinterlands abilities into the fight, too.

All ingame assets are derived from real player ownership; if you want your roguelike deck to be fully powered, you will need to own fully powered Foundations Splinterlands cards. All players are welcome to utilize their ghost card ownership, but this might not prove enough to face the full hordes within the game. Player card ownership will give decisive advantages within SplinterDefenders.

There are five playable summoners, each with a different passive, ultimate, weakness, and playstyle. You can start in Exemplar mode for a broader card pool or Summoner mode for a build focused on your splinter. Fire, Water, Earth, Life, and Death have their own scrolling battlefield art.

If you are new, the opening arcade guide explains pickups, card draws, and a few survival tricks. The basics are WASD/arrow keys to move, Space to fire, Q for magic, E for your ultimate, and F to toggle auto-fire.

Why I made it

I love the characters and abilities in Splinterlands, and I wanted to experience them in a different kind of game: fast, replayable, and full of those moments where an unexpected card combination changes a run. This started as a vibecoded experiment with AI development tools and has grown through a lot of playtesting and community feedback. Players have already helped shape the movement area, pickups, boss attacks, card explanations, and the look of the game.

What was a sideproject became my main focus for the last 10 days. @landsofpraetoria has remained my "large" scope game focus. SplinterDefenders started becoming really fun gameplay wise, so I parked my other projects and focused on this one for a week or 2. What started off as a side-project to see just how much AI I can utilize on an 8gb card soon became something fun with replay value.

What is live, and what comes next

You can play Free Play today: splinter-arcade.com/play/defender (https://splinter-arcade.com/play/defender). The Arcade supports Hive account sign-in for ongoing game progress. Free Play has its own local high scores.

I am also testing saved runs and watchable replays. Farther ahead, I am designing a separate DEC-paid Prize Run mode with card prizes, account-bound Arcade tickets, and an official verified leaderboard. That economy is not live yet; I want the run verification, reward rules, and funding to be solid before anyone pays to play.

This is an early build, consider it like a betatest, and I want your honest playtest notes. Which summoner did you choose? What card combination felt great? Where did the game feel confusing or unfair? If you hit a bug, telling me the wave, mode, summoner, and what happened will help me reproduce it.

Play here: Splinter Defender on Splinter Arcade.

Thanks for taking a look. I am excited to hear what the Splinterlands community thinks. — @splinter-arcade @amphlux @landsofpraetoria