A little over two years ago we posted about a clever-looking upcoming game called Pawnbarian from (mostly) solo developer Jan Wojtecki. The idea in Pawnbarian was to blend several types of genres together, including deck building, roguelike dungeon crawling, and… Chess. It sounds like kind of a wild idea on paper, but in practice it seems to come together really well as your character’s movement through dungeons is based on the movement principles of Chess, adding a unique wrinkle to the dungeon crawling formula. And of course your character’s actions are all pulled from a deck of cards adding a deck-building element and its associated strategies to the mix. While there is a trailer showcasing the game’s mobile play, I think you can get a better idea of what Pawnbarian is all about in action by way of this trailer from the PC version’s launch last September.

Speaking of that PC version, Pawnbarian has been quite well-received on Steam since launch, but as I said when I first posted about the game in 2020 it seems like the type of experience that will just sing on a mobile touchscreen. That does indeed seem to be the case, as just last month Pawnbarian launched on Google Play for Android where it has also been extremely well-received. Now it’s about time for iOS players to get in on the fun, as the iOS launch is now officially set for July 26th. On both iOS and Android Pawnbarian will be a free-to-try game with a one-time $7 premium unlock IAP, and if you want to make sure you don’t miss out you can pre-order the iOS version now. If you are interested in the PC version it’s also worth noting that it’s Steam Deck verified and currently on sale for $7 itself, down from its normal $10 price. I’m excited to finally get my hands on the iOS version of Pawnbarian when it arrives next month.