Graphite is out now

I swear (of course), I am not trying to repeat myself so often, but I honestly love a good, distinctive, creative art style coming together with gameplay. Even if elsewhere I am tired of some of those gameplay ideas. However, RipRed and Indie.io’s newly released Rogue-like RPG is both stunning and doing something interesting with its genre. I’m, of course, talking about Graphite, a game that looks like it came from the edges of your school notebooks. Here is what the press release says about the release of Graphite:

“Some games ask you to save the world. Graphite asks you to remember what it felt like to build one, and [yesterday] that world is open. Developed by RipRed and published by indie.io, the tactical Rogue-like RPG where pen-and-ink heroes fight for the fate of an imaginary world is available now on Steam and GOG, priced at $8.99 with a 20% launch discount.” Don’t worry, I’ll remind you of the price and the platforms at the end too. Talking about the setting, the developer notes:

“Picture a school desk. On it, a notebook. Scattered around it, playing cards and household objects repurposed by imagination into the artifacts that will define each run. Inside the notebook, heroes with names, fears, and histories face monsters drawn from the same restless mind, all of them racing against a campaign that unfolds across four acts, 15 days a piece, to fight, gather artifacts, recruit allies, and build a strategy before Death arrives. The clock is always visible. The pressure is always real. And none of the heroes know any of it is happening inside a child’s mind.

Graphite is a Rogue-like RPG that refuses to choose between spectacle and substance, where the RPG elements run as deep as the tactical systems that surround them. The handcrafted pen-and-ink world, the emotional weight of the story, and the tactical depth of its combat were built as one cohesive vision by a small team determined to honour both. Spread across four acts, the seven heroes are parts of a whole, each carrying a distinct backstory, personality, and reason to fight. Players must invest in the relationships between them, deepening bonds across the journey to unlock new story and progression. Their paths converge toward a truth that only becomes clear the longer you play.”

I love this level of creativity where we’re not just looking at setting a fantasy world up with a strange or unique art style, but also doing something creative with how the story is told to explain said style. A lot of ideas go for telling whatever story in a typical fantasy world or occasionally do an interesting art style with no acknowledgement of it in the world. Why more games don’t explore the creativity of a child is beyond me, but that’s just a complaint I have with the larger industry as a whole.

Talking more about the combat and gameplay, the press release continues: “Combat operates on a timeline where positioning in the timeline matters. Every unit’s actions are queued and visible, and the Break system rewards players who can read the rhythm of a fight. Deplete an enemy’s poise while they wind up an attack, and you push their turn further down the line, buying space and changing the shape of the encounter entirely. The same pressure applies in reverse.

Artifacts layer on top with no hard ceiling, from rare items distributed across your party to legendaries that build and detonate across consecutive hits. Enemies can acquire artifacts too, turning every encounter into a tug-of-war where the risk is always mutual and a plan surviving contact with the enemy is its own reward.

Fans of D&D campaigns, choose-your-own-adventure books, and the kind of deck builders you invented on a rainy afternoon will find something deeply familiar in how Graphite is structured. Artifacts are pulled from a deck, each one a choice that shapes the run ahead. Adventure events are signalled by a tarot card draw, opening into a fully illustrated scenario where every decision is shaped by your party, your inventory, and the path already taken. Every run is a story only you will tell.”

Speaking on the release, Luis Cañate of RipRed said, “Finishing Graphite and putting it in players’ hands is a moment we have been working toward for a long time. Every run tells a different story, but they all come from the same place — a kid, a notebook, and the kind of imagination that makes the impossible feel completely real. We hope players feel that when they play.“

Graphite is out now on Steam and GOG, typically for $8.99, but with the launch discount until the 10th of August, you can get 20% off and get Graphite for $7.19. I’m not typically one for turn-based combat, though I’ve been coming around to it more recently, and I’ve made it clear I’m getting tired of so many games with Rogue-ish elements when it comes to every game ever released in the last six years. That said, Graphite does just enough visually, creatively, and seemingly in terms of gameplay that I am giving it a second look.