Award-winning Duskers Developer Reveals Below the Crown at The MIX Showcase

[IBJamon]

Award-winning Duskers Developer Reveals Below the Crown at The MIX Showcase

Dark love letter to chess, roguelikes, and dungeon crawlers targets Q4 2025 Steam EA release

SAN MATEO, Calif. - Aug. 29, 2025 - Misfits Attic, the unhinged crew responsible for the 20+ award-winning strategy game Duskers, revealed its next project today at The MIX showcase. Below the Crown, a love letter to chess, roguelikes, and dungeon crawlers, will launch on PC via Steam Early Access in Q4 2025. The debut demo will be playable at the October Steam Next Fest 2025.

Watch The MIX showcase reveal trailer here for a closer look at the next passion project from industry veterans who have worked on everything from well-known series Diablo and Call of Duty to DreamWorks classics, including Shrek 2, How to Train Your Dragon, and Bee Movie.

Below the Crown takes the language of chess and makes it accessible for newcomers and compelling for experts. Already familiar with classic chess maneuvers like Forks and Pins? This pleases the Emperor. If not, indulge in Below the Crown’s fast and exciting chess-like experience, with explosions! Forget memorized openings, drawn-out endgames, and stalemates. Start with one piece, a badass wizard, instead of 16 - and bid the tedium of analysis paralysis adieu.

Assemble a party of Rooks, Archers, and maybe even a Mimic or two, then journey into the dark depths below the crown. Make smart plays to capture enemies and survive an ever-changing dungeon. Imbue the party with abilities like Vision for placement flexibility or Shadow Protection, granting a shield while on a dark tile. Acquire spell cards and skills to ramp up throughout a run, collecting gold to sate the Emperor, but also finding mysterious runes along the way...

When random psychological evaluations appear after the screen glitches out, there’s no need to worry. Just answer to the best of your ability to uncover what’s really going on behind the scenes of this seemingly retro adventure game...Engage with the community by competing in asynchronous challenges, creating and sharing custom boards, watching other players’ replays to see HOW they got that score, and posting glorious victories to be admired and envied by all.

“We like to think of Below the Crown as either a gateway drug into chess or a fun alternative that scratches the same strategic itch without the heaviness,” said Tim Keenan, Founder, Misfits Attic. “It offers a massively single-player experience with tons of community interaction and a satisfying gameplay loop, all wrapped in a cool ‘80s retro tech aesthetic with Duskers vibes."

Below the Crown will launch on Windows PC via Steam Early Access in Q4 2025. For more information, follow the developers on Bluesky, X, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok - join the community on Discord and Reddit, and search #BelowTheCrown on social media.



About Misfits Attic

Misfits Attic is an independent game studio based in San Mateo, CA. It strives to create big, small games with attitude and immersive experiences tagged with the team’s dark sense of humor. Its founding members have over 50 years of experience in the film, game, and design industries. The studio is best known for the award-winning RTS Duskers, as well as the critically acclaimed action-puzzler A Virus Named TOM. The team is currently developing a love letter to chess, roguelikes, and dungeon crawlers, Below the Crown, planned to release on PC via Steam early access in Q4 2025.

For more information, visit the official website.