Demon Bluff
A Roguelike card game where your deck is full of lies
Its coming to steam soon. Please wishlist if you find it interesting :)
(https://store.steampowered.com/app/3522600/Demon_Bluff/)
How it works?
You are dealt a couple of cards. Click on them to reveal their characters.
Most characters, when revealed or clicked, will give you information that helps you find the Evil ones.
Evil characters Bluff (they pretend to be a Good role) and Lie (their information is always wrong, false or not working, but you can still use their lies to work backwards and uncover the truth).
You have 10 health, every mistake will deal 5 damage to you (so you can make only 1 mistakes per round)
Your goal:
Find and Execute all Evil characters.
To Execute someone, click the dagger icon in the corner.
Also join our discord if you want to take part in future playtests :)
(the in game link is currently broken)
Useful notes:
- There usually can only be 1 character of the same role, so if there are 2 same roles it means someone is Lying (or is a Doppleganger)
- Corrupted characters will Lie and their ability will not work.
- Drunk is also always Corrupted
- Puppet created by a Puppeteer will always say truth (but its other abilities like Knights immortality, will not trigger correctly) - this character is probably up for a rework
______________________________
Examples:
Gemcrafter (Learns one Good character)
-
If Gemcrafter is Good, they might say: “#8 is Good.” → ✅ True
-
If Gemcrafter is Evil or Corrupted, they might say: “#7 is Good.” → ❌ False (#7 is actually Evil)
Knight (Cannot die)
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If Knight is Good, they survive being executed.
-
If Knight is Evil or Corrupted, they die when executed.
Hunter (Learn how far I am from the nearest Evil)
- If Hunter is #1 and closest Evil is #2 - his info is "I am 1 cards away from Evil".
(When counting cards - Does not include itself, but include the Evil). Lowest step count is 1
______________________________
CREDITS
Code and Art: @uzabiart
Art: @lovesparkley.art
You can follow us for updates:
Discord
Twitter
(Its a newly created Twitter, we will be posting any updates for this or next games!)
Game is highly inspired by social-deduction games, especially the Blood on the Clocktower, go check them out :D
Development log
- Major update - Itch version catches up with SteamSep 20, 2025
- Rebalance patchApr 10, 2025
- v 131 ChangelogsApr 07, 2025
Comments
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The Wretch's "ability" is that all characters see them as an Evil Minion, not a Good Outcast. The Enlightened, then, saw the Wretch and the Witch both two spaces away from her and, believing that the Wretch is Evil, claimed that the closes Evil to her is equidistant since the Wretch and the Witch are both two spaces away from her. It's something you have to keep in mind when the Wretch is present, but also, no one can disguise themselves as the Wretch (though the Chancellor can, to my knowledge, turn someone into a Wretch), so if the Wretch is around, it can't be anyone else and can be safely considered by you to be safe even if everyone else thinks they're Evil. This also means that if someone ever claims the Wretch to be Good, they're lying (though I admit that I don't know what an honest Judge's response would be to the Wretch). So far, it can't be corrupted, either, but when the full game comes out, that might chant.
I think there’s a bug in game, me and my friends have tried to play it on mobile (Apple) and it dosent seem to work there anymore which is confusing since it won’t load on any of our devices
Been really enjoying BotC recently and could feel the inspiration from it here in the best way possible, it's a nice, faster paced take on BotC that scratches all the right itches, really enjoyable
The art is incredible too, you've both done a fantastic job with it, though it might just be me but I can't seem to get to lovesparkley.art on insta, or on the twitter listed
I shall 100% be wishlisting on steam anyway, great job :)
This is good one!
Some more statistics!
The rarest type of Evil combination is Pooka with 2 non-minion minions. I have only recorded one of those, and I secretly wonder if it was a mistype and that game doesn’t exist?
I also haven’t played a Lilis game which has both a minion and a puppeteer. I wonder if that combination is impossible?
Once you get into regular ascensions, on average there are 2.52 evils per round yielding 885 points.
Beginners average about 970 points per 7 round 0 loss ascension, which works out to 12 extra points per round (85 in 7 rounds) which means on average each evil is killed with 0.5 cards still face down. In short, beginners are flipping all the cards before trying to kill their first evil.
An expert playing with the intention of 0 loss (no random strikes!) but doesn’t mind taking chances averages roughly 1300 points per 7 round 0 loss ascension. They score 59 extra points per round ascension (416 in 7 rounds), which means on average each evil is killed while 2.3 cards are still face down. An expert is often taking their first evil out with only half or a few more of the cards flipped. (The standard deviation for a 7 round ascension is about 197 points, so the evil composition matters a lot!)
I confirmed the minimum score per ascension is 350 points: 7 perfect solo Pooka games.
And by restart scumming for only 4 Evil Puppet games and losing 3 on purpose after killing 3 evils, I was able to score 3090 points in one ascension. I only tried once, so with some luck, I think a score of 3250+ is possible.
My revised Evil ratios after tripling the amount of games is
Minion_____ 27% 86
Twin Minion 14% 45
Witch______ 24% 75
Shaman_____ 16% 52
Poisoner___ 17% 55
Chancellor_ 22% 69
Puppeteer__ 17% 53
Puppet_____ 16% 49
Baa________ 36% 115
Pooka______ 31% 97
Lilis______ 33% 105
doppelgangers seem to be immune to corruption? I had a game where one was right next to a pooka and there were no alchemists but the doppelganger wasn't corrupted, if they are immune then that should probably be noted in their description
Many corruption effects can only corrupt villagers. It's noted in the corruptor's description.
I am dizzy
In one of my games, a shaman disguised as a judge told me “2 is lying”. I already knew 2 was a pooka, so I marked the judge as good. I lost in the end, but I am really confused as to how an evil spoke the truth. Can anyone explain how this happened?
What was Pooka's disguise? If they were disguised as a Confessor, then they would be telling the truth.
Ah, thank you, thats probably it.
will the browser version get the updates the downloaded steam game will have? since not everyone has steam
I played 100 games in standard Ascension 100+ and recorded how many of each demon and minion appears.
Minion: 24%
Twin Minion: 13%
Witch: 21%
Shaman: 12%
Poisoner: 18%
Chancellor: 35%
Puppeteer: 17%
Puppet: 16%
Baa: 33%
Pooka: 33%
Lilis: 34%
Chancellor and Witch are over-represented while Shaman is under represented.
I also broke down how often each minion appears with a particular demon
Minion with Baa: 4/33 12%
Twin Minion with Baa: 4/33 12%
Witch with Baa: 10/33 30%
Shaman with Baa: 4/33 12%
Poisoner with Baa: 4/33 12%
Chancellor with Baa: 12/33 36%
Puppeteer with Baa: 5/33 15%
Puppet with Baa: 5/33 15%
Minion with Pooka: 16/33 48%
Twin Minion with Pooka: 4/33 12%
Witch with Pooka: 5/33 15%
Shaman with Pooka: 4/33 12%
Poisoner with Pooka: 2/33 6%
Chancellor with Pooka: 8/33 24%
Puppeteer with Pooka: 1/33 3%
Puppet with Pooka: 1/33 3%
Minion with Lilis: 4/34 12%
Twin Minion with Lilis: 5/34 15%
Witch with Lilis: 6/34 18%
Shaman with Lilis: 4/34 12%
Poisoner with Lilis: 12/34 35%
Chancellor with Lilis: 15/34 44%
Puppeteer with Lilis: 11/34 32%
Puppet with Lilis: 10/34 29%
Pooka, Lilis, and Baa were evenly balanced at 1/3rd each.
Chancellor, Minion, and to a lesser degree Witch were more likely to be a “+1”: appear in games which already had another minion in them, contributing to their frequency. Shaman and Puppeteer/Puppet were more likely than other minions to be the only minion it their round.
Lilis overall had the most minions at 67 in 34 games, followed by Baa at 48 in 33 games, and Pooka had the fewest minions at 41 in 33 games.
Pretty interesting! Yeah, the game has some % likelihood of different minions appearing depending on the demon.
For example Minion has a higher % chance to appear with Pooka, since Pooka is slightly more challenging demon.
I will need to look at the numbers again and balance them more.
this game is pretty easy i think
revealing cards? not for me
pretty fun
you can NOT be serious right now
me before corruption
If you are looking for a challenge, try to get a no loss, 7 game Ascension where [Final Score – (350 ∗ Ascension level)] is greater than 1600 or less than 750. Or get a 3 loss game with greater than 1800. (For Ascension > 4)
My bests are 1700 for 0 loss, 1820 on a 2 loss, and 690 and 700 for lowest ascension score. (Without scumming, surprisingly! If you are willing to scum you can definitely beat these!)
Another way to play is to reset ascension level and try to maximize or minimize the first three Ascensions.
With no random stabbing,
Ascension 1 1310 (0 loss max), 910 (0 loss min), and 1530 (3 loss)
Ascension 2 1960 (0 loss max), 1400 (0 loss min), and 2520 (3 loss)
Ascension 3 2750 (0 loss max), 1900 (0 loss min), haven’t done a 3 loss run here
the lillis got me so scared that i started killing off unrevealed cards (and somehow won)
Hey, been playing this for a while and its pretty cool. I dont have anywhere else to ask this, so Ill ask it here. What's the point of the dreamer? it always seems like they give the same response everytime whether I point her on an evil or a village
Dreamers are the weakest villager role with the lowest usability in the game, second to knight, maybe.
A truthful Dreamer will tell you an evil’s true identity. If you targeted a villager, the Dreamer will tell you a random evil which is pretty much a waste of them.
If lying, the dreamer will always lie about an evil’s true identity, and tell you a random evil if you picked a villager.
I am on Ascension 130 and have a 100 village saved streak on my main account, which means I’ve played a thousand rounds or more of demon bluff. From that perspective, I will say that dreamers are very rarely useful.
A lot of the time, you mostly want them to identify as truthful or liars, and you can’t do that for sure until you have killed an evil or there is a wretch in play. That makes them a worse sort of confessor.
Sometimes with a certain board configuration, they have a percent chance of validating another character by naming someone as a demon that’s already dead when you know the dreamer is not corrupt.
They are most useful in Lilis games where their ability recharges at night, so you might be able to validate them and then get a use out of them.
If the dreamer is good in a one pooka game, they will always call themselves the pooka no matter if they are lying or corrupt. If a pooka, the dreamer will name an evil that does not exist.
This is awesome!
Damn that's good!
Holy knights
If only you had the thing where it shows outcast and evil cards.
Well as long as there is no Poisoner than you could attack all Knights.
with four knights, one of them is probably a Drunk
unless all three knights are evil, probably not, since the drunk disguises as a villager role not currently in play.
i feel like this is a doppelganger+shaman game with one of the knights being evil. since it also shows on the top left corner that there's 3 evils but only 2 minions, then it's also a puppeteer game, so there's most likely no poisoner/corruptions and they can start stabbing all the knights in the skull in peace :D
ohh wait i didn't know that
Why wouldn't the Doppleganger identify herself?
She is a outcast, and she is copying Druid, so of course she would identify herself.
And the doppelgänger is good, so you can trust her
So it's minesweeper but with liars and very pretty art
anyone know why the bishop didnt name a possible evil here?
#5 (Wretch) appeared as a Minion to Bishop
Wretch - can appear as any Evil Minion to other characters, so thats mainly what happened
Oh righttt thanks!
why did the drunk disguise as a villager?
The drunk and an evil can both share a disguise as a villager not in play. And hunter #2 is clearly lying because, if they were truthful, all four evils must be in spots #5, #6, and #7, and #8… but drunk is occupying one of those spots, so hunter can’t be telling the truth. Hunter #2 needs to go. Chances are, Hunter #2 is Lilis, which means you can flip the rest of the cards and still win because the health subtraction penalty stops working once Lilis is dead.
Here’s an example of a drunk and demon “double claim”:
https://img.itch.zone/aW1nLzI0NzYyMzE0LnBuZw==/original/8Dk%2Fzt.png
thanks for the answer, idk why when i was playing i thought the drunk was disguised as a druid, it makes sense that #2 is evil
Day 23 of waiting for a DB update
Ascension 100!
My average Ascension Score - (Ascension lvl × 350) was 1032, with a high water mark of 1820 thanks to about 5 Puppet or Lilis rounds in one ascension with meant blind kills were super viable. (Edit: my average score the last 20 rounds was 1163, median 1155, so definitely improved over the course of things!)
Most dangerous card: Dreamer. The number one cause of lost games. Dreamers can’t be used effectively before an evil kill and using them before a kill makes them very tough to validate later. A dreamer on the board is like you don’t have a card at all. Doppel dreamer and Shaman dreamer games are over-represented in my lost game notes. Now that I am this far out perspective-wise, Dreamer is still one the card needs to be fixed to do more so it has pre-first-kill utility, or simply ditched completely. Secondary nod to the plague doctor for being a round wrecker at times.
Most dangerous evil: Chancellor, replacing a villager for an outcast weakens the board more than the puppeteer or corruptors. A nod to Witch and Baa as well.
‘Pooka party’ hands with just Pooka and 4/5 villagers were a delight when they came up - the frequency was about right too. BTW. The knitter should say “There is only 1 Evil” like scout instead of “Evils are not adjacent to each other” in single evil games (taking into account the Wretch).
I confirmed some edge mechanics I had been wondering about: Lilis kills a random evil, not preferentially the wretch, if only evils are facedown on nightfall. (I have screenshot proof). Stabbing a facedown real knight while a witch is blocking does not flip it. Witnesses can point to evils when lying.
I was a little sad game 6/7 of Ascension 66 and game 7/7 of Ascension 77 weren’t something silly (although I did get a seven card seventh game on ascension 77)
A66 6/7 could be a hand with 5 evils and one wretch in play.
A77 7/7 could be a chancellor, shaman, minion game where they all disguise as bombardiers with a real bombardier outcast and shaman dupes a jester and the final char is a judge. #1 Bombardier, #2 Bombardier, #3 Jester, #4 Jester, #5 Bombardier, #6 Bombardier, #7 Judge (Guaranteed winnable!)
Day 15 of waiting for a DB update
day 21 one now
Puppet somehow lying
Can you post a full screenshot? You seem to have one more evil to kill because…
#1: You do not have “the village is safe” popup yet which means there must be one more evil left to kill.
#2 Your villager count is 5, minus one for the puppet. So you have 4 real villagers. You have 6 apparent villagers on the board that I see, one of which is a doppelganger. That’s one too many unless you have a second outcast.
#9 medium appears to be evil, pointing at #2 who is a doppelganger. In that configuration 7, 8, 3, and 2 would all be telling the truth.
I dont have any way to get a full screenshot of this but from what i remember #9 was the demon but it still doesnt make sense for the puppet to lie since puppeteer should be the closest evil and witch should be the 2nd closest
Also it was a single outcast round
The puppet didn’t lie. The puppet was a scout. The Scout’s testimony gives the distance between the specified Evil and the closest other Evil to it. The Scout’s mechanic is different from the hunter who is distance from self to nearest evil.
The scout gave testimony about the witch, who truly was one card away from #9, a demon.
(Caveat that the wretch can mess this calculus up, but not in this round)
Actually the Witch is equidistant with Baa, so Witch and Baa are both 2nd closest to Puppet.
Also do you know how to read and understand it?
If you did then you'd know that Baa was the closest evil to the Witch, since Baa is 1 card away.
Maybe next time, read and understand the words you read and you won't be as confused as you were 2 days ago.
Christmas skins?
how?
When?
I just got them after playing some rounds of normal mode
On the browser version?
On the steam version the link leads to
ngl I think the corruption stuff gets a little much and convoluted sometimes, but other than that, love ittt
it'd be kinda easy a little of the time without corruption tho
Please add an option to download the demo, I am not using steam, and I'd really like to have a portable version of the game.
the lover on 1 who wasn't evil nor corrupted said there was no person evil next to her, and there was a wretch on 2.
Can you screenshot the evidence next time so that players can see if they can explain it or if it's a actual glitch.
And to make sure you didn't miss anything, also hover over the oracle thing on the right side as it'll he helpful in some cases.
i do not know how to screenshot :I
Alright, exorcists, here’s a weird one for you. Lilis night attacked a real knight twice in a row, so I’ve got a full living 10 card village with a triplet of scouts and a triplet of mediums. Who has to go?
The solution to this one is quite funny!
rot13: Ng zbfg sbhe bs gur Zrqvhzf naq Fpbhgf pna or Tbbq (bar bevtvany Zrqvhz naq bar bevtvany Fpbhg, cyhf bar Qbccrytnatre naq bar pybarq punenpgre.) Gurersber, ng yrnfg gjb bs gur Rivyf ner nzbat 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, naq ng zbfg bar Rivy vf nzbat 6, 8, 9, 10. Gur Trzpensgre naq Rayvtugrarq zhfg or bs gur fnzr nyvtazrag orpnhfr bs gur Trzpensgre'f fgngrzrag naq gur snpg gung gurer ner ab Pbeehcgvbaf, naq fvapr gurer pna bayl or bar Rivy nzbat gurz, gurl zhfg obgu or Tbbq. Shegurezber, fvapr ab bgure Trzpensgref be Rayvtugrarqf ner va gur Ivyyntr, arvgure punenpgre pna or gur Qbccrytnatre. Guvf zrnaf gung nyy guerr Zrqvhzf ner gehgushy. Urapr, gurer zhfg or ng yrnfg gjb Rivyf nzbat gur Fpbhgf, zrnavat gurer vf ng yrnfg bar Rivy pynvzvat "Yvyvf vf guerr pneqf njnl sebz pybfrfg Rivy". Guvf fgngrzrag guhf pnaabg or gehr, zrnavat gung obgu Fpbhgf pynvzvat vg ner Rivy. Ol gur Rayvtugrarq'f fgngrzrag, gur pybfrfg rivy gb gurz va gur pybpxjvfr qverpgvba vf guerr pneqf njnl sebz gurz, zrnavat gung pneqf guerr, svir, naq frira - nyy guerr Fpbhgf - ner gur Rivy punenpgref.
(Edit: added link and this message)
excuse me
what
3, 5, and 7 has to go.
1: Confirms 10 as a Enlightened
2: Confirms 9 as Gemcrafter
3: Claims Lilis is 1 away from a evil which is impossible
4: Confirms 9 as real Gemcrafter, possible Doppleganger
5: Claims Lilis is 3 away from a evil which is impossible
6: Claims 1 evil out of 4, 7, and 10; 4 and 10 are confirmed while 7 is not
7: Claims Lilis is 3 away from a evil which is impossible
8: Is why no murders happened
9: Confirms 10 as good
10: Claims evil are equidistant which makes 3 and 7 both evil
CABBAGE NOISES INTENSIFY
A wonderful game, great Work.
I would love to know how much damage killing each of the villagers does, it all does random amounts.
5 is the standard penalty for most villagers and outcasts. That’s almost all the characters.
2 when killing a drunk because the drunk acts like an evil and sometimes you can’t avoid spiking him trying to figure out who is actually evil.
9 for a corrupted knight
6 for a drunk disguised as a knight (special case)
∞ for a real bombardier
And Lilis subtracts 2 health every fourth flip which is why Lilis rounds can look a little weird healthwise.
Thank you so much!!
Can anyone explain me why plague doctor wasn't corrupted and said the truth? I thought corrupted characters can't do their jobs. That's what 'Corrupted' tag explains.
Yup, corrupted characters lie. Here Plague Doctor was not corrupted, so he told the truth.
MY GUY!
HELLO
Pooka only corrupts adjacent villagers. The Plague Doctor is an Outcast, not a Villager, so was not corrupted by Pooka.
OH adjacent VILLAGERS
Thank you, now I got it
Very fun rules, but the game seems fundamentally broken right now. I've lost multiple rounds because character hints were completely incorrect, and the character was neither corrupted nor drunk. Would absolutely play more if these issues were fixed.
There are no major errors in the gameplay logic right now (but the lack of tutorials is a problem, imho). People here are happy to sort what’s going on if you screenshot your game results.
The wretch is usually the culprit though for new players, fittingly enough.
Here’s an example of someone else’s problem with the wretch: https://itch.io/post/15061433
LOVER ON 1 NOT EVIL NOR CORRUPTED SAY "NO EVILS AGAISENT TO ME" WITH A WRETCH ON 2
INTENSIFY
I LOVE this game but I really don't get the baker at all. I think sometimes in rounds I'm lacking major information and it happens like wayyyy to often. Like many rounds of its a 1 in 9 chance, but maybe its just me being bad at the game. I just don't get the doppleganger and the baker much, like the baker says its meant to be someone else I have NO idea how to find out who she was before. If you guys have any tips for me that would also help.
https://demonbluff.wiki.gg/wiki/Baker
I needed the wiki for the baker.
Basically the baker is a disease that propagates to one unflipped villager card every time a new baker is flipped until it hits a corrupted one. The corrupted one will transform, lie about what it used to be, but end the chain.
So it’s possible for a medium to say something like #7 is a real Knight, and then on flip #7 is a baker that says “I was a Knight” (or if corrupted lie and say “I was an Oracle.”)
“I am the original baker” is always a good, uncorrupted card, but may be a doppel.
Also alchemists who were bakered will still do their alchemy because alchemists are a round start ability, not an on flip ability.
I know how to clear the DREAMER and the JUDGE. if the dreamer says the WRETCH is a cabbage, the dreamer is good. if the judge says that the confessor is telling the truth, the judge is good.
unless they are the puppet
Sometimes when there is a puppet, self-validation is the best strategy.
The only problem with puppet currently is a puppet knight does technically lie by saying “I can’t die.” That should be sneak changed on right click when knight is puppet as a freebie for anyone observant, like cabbage dreamer.
Puppet killing puppeteer ought to unlock a backstabbing-themed skin, imo.
why is the puppet commiting suicide
Puppet was a slayer, and a puppet slayer can still slay evils. They will slay their puppeteer or themselves. Puppets can also tattle on themselves as fortune teller, jester, bishop, empress, and witness.
The only time the puppet sabotages the ability of the card it is impersonating is puppet alchemist (always “I cured 0 corruptions”), puppet Baker (always “I was a baker” and no propagation), and puppet Knight (can be killed). Puppet confessor will be dizzy.
puppets are evil, but they always tell the truth
yes i have a friggin brain
This game is absolutely horrible.
The characters lie when they aren't evil.
bro have you heard of corruption and drunk?
In the upper right, there is a list of the characters that might appear in the round and you can right click to learn how their abilities work. Some like Wretch (always good so never kill, but seen as a truthful but evil minion by truthful characters) can cause unexpected behavior.
The rest is logic.
If you have Poisoner (+1 Corrupted villager adjacent to Evil) and Baa (Don’t know which outcast will be in play), and a choice between Drunk and Wretch for the one outcast and no wretch appears on flip, then you expect 4 total lies - one drunk, one corrupt, and 2 evils. At least two liars have to be adjacent. Then you plot out possible scenarios that would make the board consistent with 4 liars (if X is a lying evil, this guy must also be a liar).
Then you kill someone suspicious (unless you kill a bombardier or you are in a Lilis round, you get a “free” kill) and find out if you logicked wisely. If you were wrong, there’s a good chance you can use the new information (dead cards reveal if they were truthful or corrupt) to pivot into the correct solution, especially if you didn’t tap all the character abilities.
Also you can use dead character abilities, even if they were evil, which helps.
it is practicly the same thing execpt the alcemist can't cure it.
for the drunk
THATS THE POINTING OF THE F#CKING GAME
Simple but clever. I love the way simple rules interact to create complex situations. Of course, you do sometimes get situations where you can only win by luck.
I think I just had the best round of demon bluff from a pure logic standpoint. This feels like the purest single game you could play to test if you know the rules.
8 would have been the perfect opening strike because drunk and demon must be double claiming the same role, and 3 and 5 would both have to lie if 4 was evil and only one of them could be poisoned.
Day 1 of waiting "patiently" for the next DB update
(we gonna be here for a while)