Canvas Infernum is a tile placement puzzle game with heavy board game influences, along with a uniquely dark setting inspired by classic paintings such as Hieronymous Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights. Starkly contrasting with the cozy and wholesome vibes of similar indie games, Canvas Infernum's warmth comes from the lava flowing through each player's unique iteration of Hell.
It's not just aesthetic and thematic differences that make Canvas Infernum stand out, however, as it also boasts several gameplay twists that introduce new depth to a traditionally simplistic genre. In Canvas Infernum, players are tasked with placing tiles that may feature lava, mountains, or other features to connect matching tiles to score points and gradually develop the infernal landscape. In an interview with The Best War Games at Gamescom LATAM, Canvas Infernum developer Eduardo Saffer Medvedovski spoke about the game's unique gameplay twists that shake up a familiar formula.
Canvas Infernum Has Roguelike Replayability
Medvedovski likened single-player board games of this style to deck-building games like Slay the Spire, a mechanically rich title with otherwise minimalistic moment-to-moment card-playing gameplay. Medvedovski compares Canvas Infernum's various tile "factions" to the characters and classes in these other games, which is one of Canvas Infernum's key distinctions:
"We felt pretty comfortable designing single-player board games — they’re kind of like puzzles, but with more systemic combos, similar to what you see in well-designed deck-building games that have also made a smooth transition to Steam. Slay the Spire is a great example — it has really strong mechanics and progression systems, like the different character “races” or classes in Dominion. That game went back to basics in a really smart way.
Now, I’m not saying I dislike traditional card games — every time you play a card game, it feels fresh. It's great that there are so many of them with deep mechanics on Steam. But in the tile-placement genre, that same level of systemic depth just isn’t as common, so that’s where we saw an opportunity to build something new."
In Canvas Infernum, players can make "pacts" with the avatars of the seven deadly sins. For example, players can choose to make a pact that rewards them with additional tiles for connecting three lava tiles, encouraging a focus on arranging the terrain to claim this reward as often as possible. It's a clever twist that allows for various playstyles in a genre that doesn't typically offer this sort of variety between playthroughs.
How Canvas Infernum Tackles Analysis Paralysis
Medvedovski also spoke about the issue of "analysis paralysis" players face in puzzle games like this. It can be difficult to decide where best to place a tile, or when a space should be saved or used. One helpful element of the game is that potential tile locations are highlighted for the player automatically, but Medvedovski also mentions the game's "joker tile" mechanic as a means to alleviate this:
"There are also specific challenges we wanted to tackle — like what’s often called “analysis paralysis.” That’s when you’ve got a huge board and you're stuck deciding where to place a single tile, which can be overwhelming. So we aimed to design tighter gameplay loops — smaller core decisions that still feel meaningful.
We also included this “joker” element, kind of inspired by Balatro, which lets you score based on your chosen skills and synergizes with different types or "races," like the Lava or Mountain factions. Because you're selecting a different “boon” each time you play, it changes your strategy and gives you a fresh experience every run."
These Balatro-inspired Joker tiles are earned at certain point thresholds, so players always know when they have one coming up. These tiles automatically fit anywhere they're placed, which lets players fill in challenging blank spots for massive amounts of points. With an almost roguelike approach to the tile placement genre and some helpful gameplay twists, Canvas Infernum is shaping up to be one of the deeper games to join the tile placement genre.
Canvas Infernum is currently in development with a demo available on itch.io.