Post news Report RSS ROADMAP 2020: Book of Demons: Hellcard and Book of Aliens Announced!

Book of Demons' devs announce two new titles in Return 2 Games series - "Book of Demons: Hellcard" card game and X-Com / UFO inspired "Book of Aliens"

Posted by on

Today we want to announce not one, but two new titles in Return 2 Games series - Book of Demons: Hellcard, a card game, and X-Com / Ufo inspired "Book of Aliens"!


EventHeader1 3


2019 was a particularly chaotic time for all of us here at Thing Trunk! It’s been a whole year since the denizens of the dungeons beneath Cathedral were unleashed upon the citizens of Town. Since then, thousands of heroes have joined the hacking and slashing hellish forces and defeated the Archdemon! That was a crazy time, thank you for the ride!

So... it’s high time we share with you what we’ve been up to for the last 12 months.


In the spirit of the annual roadmap update, we’ll try to briefly sum up what we managed to do, what’s coming up in the near and not so near future, and - as usual - why everything is always going slower than we’d like to.

But most important of all, today we’re announcing not one, but two new games that we are working on in the Return 2 Games series!


Book of Demons: HELLCARD

Book of Demons Hellcard


Hellcard is a cooperative roguelike deckbuilder supporting both single and multiplayer modes. It takes place in the same universe as Book of Demons, but takes the story further and into unexpected places!

Book of Demons used cards for many of its mechanics and we have toyed with the idea of making a truly deckbuilding mode on top of it, but within the original game it could never be developed to its full potential.

Book of Demons - Hellcard


Hellcard, on the other hand, is a true turn-based card game and in this sense, it has more in common with games such as Slay the Spire than with action RPGs.

What makes HELLCARD unique is that the battles take place in the dungeons and monster placement actually matters.

Book of Demons - Hellcard


Another feature we’re extremely excited to share is that with Book of Demons: HELLCARD we’re planning to support co-op battles with up to three heroes facing Archdemon’s hordes. You’ll be able to descend into the dungeons solo, recruit computer-controlled companions, join your friends or strangers in their battles against the armies of darkness.

Book of Demons - Hellcard

Hellcard will be a part of the Return 2 Games series and will be free for our R2G Supporters. Book of Demons owners can expect *very* heavy discounts on launch.

If the above features get you excited, be sure to wishlist the game! Otherwise consider wishlisting anyway - who knows, maybe we will get you excited along the way!


Book of Aliens

Book of Aliens


As many of you speculated, Book of Aliens is the next big book in the Return 2 Games series and it’s a tribute to MicroProse’ UFO: Enemy Unknown. A game of global strategy and battlefield tactics.

Book of Aliens


Unfortunately, we can’t reveal much about the game mechanics at this point. The screens you see above and below are an indication where we want to be in terms of visuals, but they are just mockups based on one of the older prototypes. After testing lots of ideas, we had to scrap most of them because none of them fulfilled our R2G vision. Currently, we’re experimenting with several new gameplay mechanics that are much more original and promising.

Book of Aliens


In terms of story, Book of Aliens’ action takes place during a global crisis. Earth (or… PapEarth?) is threatened by an alien invasion originating from below the planet’s surface. Your mission is to lead a supranational agency of scientists and military agents in a desperate but valiant fight to understand the alien agenda and thwart it.

If you want to stay updated and be notified when the game is released, be sure to wishlist Book of Aliens!


New games timelineEventHeader2


We have an ambitious plan to launch Book of Demons: HELLCARD into early access before the end of next year. This should be doable given that Hellcard will be using much of the Book of Demons tech. We plan to showcase more details from the game, including gameplay clips, throughout the year and generally be as open with the development as possible.

Book of Aliens, on the other hand, does not have a release target yet, as we are still experimenting with new gameplay mechanics to find the perfect one. We don’t want to rush things and accelerate deadlines as this would mean compromising on quality.

Book of Aliens


Just like with Hellcard, we plan to give more regular updates on Book of Aliens and show how the game is progressing. And if you are excited about Hellcard and Book of Aliens and want to be the first one to test our future games be sure to join our Sneak-Peek Discord channel to follow their development. That's where we will post about updates, public tests and ask your opinion.


A quick look back at 2019

Book of Aliens


The whole year after the Book of Demons launch was insanely hectic and it wasn't until recently that things started to settle a bit. Looking back at it we are wondering how we even managed to squeeze in any new game development at all.

After we launched Book of Demons, the amount of work we had to do with the game didn’t drop, it actually increased! On one hand, we still had to keep developing the game to bring all the features that we promised in the post-release roadmap, and on the other, we had to start bringing the game to more shops and markets. In some countries, we launched a physical version of the game in retail stores. Thanks to our efforts, Book of Demons was one of the few launch titles for Xbox Game Pass on PC.

Book of Demons - iPad


Apart from this, we were (and still are) working on an iPad port of Book of Demons and this is coming along nicely and is almost complete. We were also working on an Xbox One version of the game. Luckily, in the middle of the year, we were approached by a publisher who offered to port the game and bring it to even more platforms. Expect an announcement about it soon.

A considerable amount of time was dedicated to a thorough review of our technology stack and the planning of future features. This was when we came to the conclusion that Hellcard would be the last title made in our current technology and that we need to make the switch to a mainstream modern engine with Book of Aliens. Learning a new technology can be a big endeavor on its own, but it’s an investment that should allow us to make better games faster in the future.

Thing Trunk Team


We also dedicated a significant amount of time to expand the team. But thanks to the new people on board (two graphic artists and a designer) we were able to kick off a simultaneous development of Hellcard and Book of Aliens. Our team is now 10 people and we are still looking for a community manager.


Stay tuned for more!2815133bbd8976f4c7d82ab1996d142a


The good news is that new games are coming along nicely and we can finally focus on them, as the biggest hurdles are behind us. If you are excited about Hellcard and Book of Aliens, and want to follow their development, be sure to join our Sneek-Peek discord channel. If you want to be notified when the games are released, wishlist the games on Steam or simply subscribe to our newsletter.

Take care, and let us know in the comments if you have any questions :)

Stay safe in the world of Paperverse!
Thing Trunk team


Post a comment

Your comment will be anonymous unless you join the community. Or sign in with your social account: