Slotomancer: A magical amount of luck

Slots-based roguelike is a genre that has received several new additions over the last year or so. While some of these games are interesting takes on the most luck-based game humanity has ever conceived, many tend to be met with the same obstacles as other additions in the genre.

Slotomancer’s gameplay suffers from this and a few other issues, despite having an interesting concept. We’ll go over exactly where this game struggles, what it does well, and how the developer could best utilise the concept to make something truly great. 

What is Slotomancer?

In the Slotomancer trailer, we see a little of what this game has in store. Within it, the game’s main gameplay loop is shown, as well as a few of the available upgrades and minions the player can expect to see. Within the game, you play a wizard who must conquer their opponents by adding symbols to a slot machine that will lower their health bar. However, on the same slot machine, your opponent will also be adding symbols, meaning it is a race to see who can lower their opponent’s health bar faster.

In order to assist you with this, several items and upgrades are available to the player. After every spin, a new option is presented to the player to either add more equipped items or add symbols to the slot machine. These symbols fall under 5 categories, each of which provide their respective colour mana when scored. Mana can then be spent, either by specific minions for abilities, or spells that are on the left of the screen.

While we admit this idea is very interesting, its execution is a little lacklustre in the game’s current state. While the spells do add a fun way to change up gameplay, you tend to find that some builds work considerably better than others. For instance, we found the blue mana spell of “upgrade rarity of items” to be pretty overpowered when compared to other mana colours, especially with the blue minions’ combo effects.

When is Slotomancer coming out?

Slotomancer’s release date was January 9th, 2026. This was the date the game entered early access; the full release has not yet been announced. As such, everything mentioned in this article is highly subject to change. We wish to drive this point specifically, as although we may be negative about the game’s current state, the concept is there; it just needs refining. 

Hopefully, with enough time and ample resources, the developer is able to polish the gameplay. Until then, though, what is on show is a little disappointing, but it can be quite fun when everything works in order. 

Who’s developing Slotomancer?

Slotomancer’s developer is a single person going by the username Flatts. Through a little searching, we managed to find that the developer’s real name is Jason Flatford. According to the devs instagram page, they are not a stranger to the video game industry, with several accolades mentioned in their bio.

Slotomancer has been developed solely by Flatts; as such, all criticism must be made with that in mind. However, Flatts has stated on the Steam page that many of the in-game assets are created by AI. We don’t love this, as many indie game devs before this have created games without having to fall back on this. 

Once you know this, it does become quite obvious, as the in-game sprites struggle with consistency. This is most apparent in the differences between certain symbols on the slot machine, as some are drawn in a cartoonish style, while others have a strange realism. The menus also use emoji, a standard AI identifier. Flatts does state that if the game is successful, he will commission artists for more specific sprites.

This is commendable, and were not denying that the use of AI can make the early stages of development easier, but it does not take away from the impact it has on the game. Suffice to say, this game will be improved massively once its art style is more concretely defined. Additionally, there is a Discord community mentioned in the settings and home screen, but both options to send you there are currently non-functioning.  

What is the magic in Slotomancer?

There are two distinct ways to use magic to affect Slotomancer’s gambling. The main one is a list of mana colour-specific spells on the left side of the screen. These spells do such things as provide you with a re-roll for any items gained, or, as previously mentioned, permanently improve the rarity of collected upgrades. It does not matter what build you go for; these spells are available. 

There are also symbol-specific active effects that can be triggered with the consumption of mana. These often have to do with the number of corresponding symbols on the screen, with the higher concentration of matching symbols resulting in stronger effects. This does provide some fun strategy, and getting combos of these can be a satisfying way to drain the enemy’s health.

Currently, though, these spells are a little janky. None of them have any visual or audio cues that anything is actually occurring once activated, but more specifically, in the game’s current state, they can actually hard-lock you and end runs. If a spell causes the opponent’s entire health bar to drain, it will enter negative integers, and the boss will become immortal. This happened to us more than once.

Slotomancer vs other slots games

When comparing Slotomancer to other slots-based roguelikes such as Slots & Daggers or Cloverpit, one must remember that Slotomancer’s roguelike elements and spell system are built by one person. Most likely greatly assisted by AI, which again is not good, but it’s still worth considering the limitations that Flatts is working under. 

Accounting for said limitations, the general idea for the game is great, and when it’s working, the combos of spells and minions allow some entertaining scenarios. But is that enough to save it? Considering that the previously mentioned Cloverpit was made by only two people, is the solo dev enough of an excuse?

That is really up to you to decide. Currently, Slotomancer’s price is $10, and while paying that will support this indie dev in making their game what they wish it to be, it’s debatable whether or not the price is worth the experience. While we’re excited to see how the game improves with more care and effort, we sincerely hope it improves soon and hopefully removes all AI assets promptly.