Developers from the New Zealand studio RiffRaff Games, founded by Framed puzzle co-creator Joshua Boggs, presented their first game – Sleight of Hand. The project was announced as part of the March Xbox Partner Preview presentation.
Sleight of Hand is a noir card-based stealth action game about Lady Luck. Under the name of the latter hides a retired occult detective, revered in society, who is forced to return to the case to destroy her former coven. Communicating with people from a past life, Lady Luck finds herself in the seedy and taboo city of Steeple City, where ritual magic and the ability to use cursed artifacts rule the roost.
We also note that the main character of Sleight of Hand received the name Lady Luck for a reason. The protagonist will have at her disposal a deck of cursed cards with different effects, as well as smoke magic, with the help of which the heroine can quickly and quietly deal with her enemies or run away from them. The gameplay of the card stealth action is a relentless expansion of the deck, selection of ideal cards for each level, coupled with searching for passwords to open secret passages through the levels. And here you need to expand your arsenal of abilities and look for information to complete the task.
The project's Steam description reads: “Infiltrate the cool, rain-soaked city of Taboo, where ritual magic and cursed artifacts separate those with power from those without. Sleight of Hand is a third-person stealth action card game that challenges you to destroy the clan you once ran with.”
Key features of the project:
the ability to use unique abilities from the cards in the deck. Maps allow you to conduct reconnaissance, teleport, set traps, blind enemies and interact with the environment. This allows each level to be entered and exited unnoticed, unless the player prefers a different approach; powerful equipment for the main character. Lady Luck will equip cursed trinkets with permanent passive effects that activate under special conditions; deckbuilding as a key mechanic of the game. The player improves his cards and builds a deck to adapt it to specific conditions; emphasis on tactics and espionage. The developers emphasize that not only the quality of the cards is important, but also their quantity for a particular batch.
Sleight of Hand should be released in 2025 on PC (Steam, Microsoft Store), Xbox Series X and S. The project has its own page on Steam, where the presence of a text translation into Russian has already been confirmed.