Forget horror games, the ones that really scare me are the emotional ones. I’m a pretty emotional person, so I run the risk of crying from beginning to end, and judging by what I saw in the trailer shown during Gamescom 2026’s indie showcase, Deck of Memories looks like it’s going all-in on the feels.
Developed by Berlin-based Sentiment Games, this narrative card game follows a young woman searching through the stories her grandfather left behind.
Its latest trailer debuted during the Gamescom Awesome Indies showcase, revealing a gentler, campaign-driven take on deckbuilding that favors carefully constructed encounters over endless randomized runs. Deck of Memories is currently scheduled to arrive on PC in 2027.
Developer: Sentiment Games
Publisher: Sentiment Games
Genre: Narrative Deckbuilding Adventure
Platform: PC
Release Window: 2027
Returning to the Lighthouse
The story centers on Mina, who returns to the lighthouse where her grandfather once worked. While examining his belongings, she discovers a handmade deck of cards capable of bringing scenes from his past to life.
Mina enters memories presented as miniature dioramas spread across a table. Each one captures a particular episode from her grandfather’s life, though important details have begun to disappear. Restoring those moments requires Mina to understand the card encounter attached to them and prevent the memory from fading completely.
It is an effective premise for a card game. Every card is more than a mechanical tool: it belongs to the person Mina is attempting to understand. The deck therefore acts as both her means of progression and a physical record of the family history she is gradually reconstructing.
The lighthouse also gives the mystery a contained, intimate setting. Instead of asking the protagonist to save an entire kingdom, Deck of Memories appears focused on a much more personal question: how well can we truly know someone through the objects and stories they leave behind?
Card Encounters Inside Living Dioramas
The campaign is divided into a collection of short stories, each containing several card-based encounters. These take place on small three-dimensional boards where characters, objects, and environmental elements appear as handcrafted pieces.
The dioramas are not merely decorative backgrounds. Sentiment Games plans to introduce different rules and environmental complications in each memory. Shifting tides may alter the available space, while moving machinery can change the board during an encounter. Cards must be combined carefully to stabilize the scene and recover its missing details.
That structure could make individual chapters feel closer to bespoke tabletop puzzles. A card that solves one situation may become less valuable when the next diorama changes the rules, encouraging players to build a versatile collection.
Illustrated cards sit on wooden surfaces alongside tokens, tools, and small pieces of scenery, while the dioramas resemble elaborate models assembled from paper and painted materials.
Sentiment Games describes the artwork as entirely hand-painted, giving the game a deliberately tactile appearance that fits its themes of craftsmanship and nostalgia.
Reworking Cards at the Crafting Table
Between memories, Mina can visit a crafting table and modify her deck using supplies that belonged to her grandfather.
Cards are not simply collected and placed into a fixed loadout. Different trinkets can be attached to them, creating new interactions and allowing particular cards to support several possible strategies.
Memory shards earned during the campaign provide access to additional cards, crafting implements, and collectibles. This progression system should gradually expand what Mina can do without forcing the game into the familiar pattern of starting from nothing after every failed run.
Sentiment Games cites the opening portion of Inscryption and Hearthstone’s solo Adventures as inspirations, while also emphasizing that its game is not designed around punishing difficulty, rapid combat, violence, or multiplayer competition.
This softer direction does not necessarily mean the card mechanics will be shallow. Changing diorama rules, customizable cards, attachable trinkets, and unlockable tools leave plenty of room for strategic experimentation.
Deck of Memories is planned for release on PC through Steam in 2027. Sentiment Games has also confirmed that a playable demo is coming, although its availability date has not yet been announced. Below, I share the trailer.
