Tic Tactic is Like a More Simple Balatro, and I Really Like It

I’ve discussed this a lot with my friends and fellow Six One Indie team members, but there have been a HUGE amount of Balatro-likes that have come out this year. And while Balatro didn’t completely reinvent the wheel - other roguelike games exist, it did do a lot of really unique things that have now inspired other game developers to do something similar. Tic Tactic from developer unbreaded has a similar vibe to Balatro, with a much simpler gameplay mechanic - it’s Tic-Tac-Toe with a twist. 

In the game you battle enemies using your standard Tic-Tac-Toe board which contains nine spots for your tiles. You control the X’s and your enemies control the O’s. The simple goal is to get three in a row, which allows your character to do damage to the enemy equal to the value of each of your tiles. Think of it kind of like Scrabble, where each tile is worth a certain number of damage points depending on the kind of tile it is. Your foe’s goal is the same as yours. Like I said, simple. But boy do things get crazier and crazier the more enemies that you defeat. 

When you start a round of Tic-Tac-Toe against an enemy, you’ll have only a certain number of tiles to use. As you progress through each run, you’ll add additional tiles to your “deck” and each tile will have their own unique properties. For example, some tiles when used can spawn additional tiles for you on the board, others can eliminate enemy tiles from the board. Utilizing these special tiles in the best way to do the most damage and take down enemies quickly. 

Much like your typical roguelike, there will be more than just battles taking place. You’ll come across special events that can help or hinder you, as well as shops where you can buy new tiles with your hard-earned coin. Each choice that you make will bring you closer to the boss at the end of each run. Beat the boss and move on to the next world where you’ll have to complete your next run with everything you’ve collected so far. 

Tic Tactic encourages players to make powerful decks in order to defeat stronger and stronger enemies ultimately taking the top spot on the leaderboard. Each run offers new challenges and new opportunities. Players that love strategy games and roguelikes, will likely fall in love with this Tic-Tac-Toe team up. 

Tic Tactic is available now on Steam.