At the center of a sacred ring stands one hero, and the dark spirals inward. Play your hand, raise your turrets, and twist the arena itself so the horde marches straight onto your blades. Every turn you can take it back — so make the bold play. Hold the Center.

The Arena

GYRE is a circular-arena roguelite deckbuilder. You stand at the dead center of an 8-sector, 3-ring arena while enemies spawn at the rim and crawl inward, turn by turn. On your turn you drag cards from your hand onto the board — abilities strike down a lane, units deploy as turrets that hold it — then END TURN and watch it resolve: your hero whirlwinds the inner ring, your turrets fire, the horde steps closer.

The twist is in the name. You can spin the rings — rotate a whole ring of enemies one sector over while your turrets stay bolted in place — to line the horde up exactly where your firepower is already aimed. Misplay? Rewind your last action and try again. The board is a puzzle that fights back.

Features

• Drag-to-play deckbuilding — abilities hit lanes, units deploy as lane-holding turrets. No fiddly menus; just drag and drop.
• Spin the arena — rotate rings of enemies onto your guns while your turrets stay anchored. Lane control is the game.
• Rewind — undo your last play or spin, every single turn. Experiment freely; commit when it's right.
• Holy vs. Shadow — radiant blades and creeping dark, drawn from the gorgeous OpenDuelyst art set.
• Crack packs, build your run — draft new cards between fights and tune your deck as the waves escalate.
• Plays in your browser — desktop and mobile, mouse or touch.

Controls

• Drag a card — onto a lane (ability) or an empty space (unit) to play it
• Tap a ring, then SPIN CW / CCW — rotate that ring's enemies
• REWIND — take back your last action this turn
• END TURN — resolve the round
• Touch-friendly — drag and tap work on phones and tablets
• Esc — settings / pause

Made for the Very Serious Juniper Dev Game Jam

Built solo for the Very Serious Juniper Dev Game Jam on the DragonRuby Game Toolkit, with the arena board and effects worked in Blender.

Credits

Design, Code & Original Art — Walt (waltmakes)
Engine — DragonRuby Game Toolkit
3D & Art tooling — Blender

Sprites, card art & audio — adapted from OpenDuelyst, dedicated to the public domain under Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0). Huge thanks to the OpenDuelyst team for keeping this art free.

Hold the Center.