GRUNDVAL
Play beta
◆ ABOUT

A deckbuilder where your cards are your character

There's no class selection screen. Your character is built from the cards you play. Each card you play grants experience to your class. Class levels unlock upgraded versions of cards, and you decide whether to specialize or mix them up as you play, not at the beginning.

THE LOOPExplore, encounter, battle, earn class XP, improve the deck, explore further, face a boss, escape — then the world map.
SESSIONOne escape takes 60–90 minutes. The loop reads in the first fifteen. Saves are cloud-backed, so a closed tab is not a lost game.
WHERE IT RUNSIn the browser first, in English, Russian or Serbian. Wider distribution is a later growth lever, not a launch requirement.
POSITIONING

One line, not a feature list

Your character is the deck. Nothing else decides it.

Two beats carry the rest. Pick a side to get out of Hollowfort — loyalty decides who is waiting at the gate. And your health is your deck: the same cards you explore with are the ones you bleed.

What success looks like: a few thousand people who finish the prison, argue about which faction was right, and come back for a second loyalty. A cult deckbuilder, not a chart-topper — the roadmap is written for the first.

NEIGHBOURS

Where it sits on the shelf

Slay the SpireThe default deckbuilder benchmark players measure everything against.
BalatroProof a card loop can explode when the hook is fresh.
InscryptionDark narrative wrapped around cards; adjacent atmosphere.
Monster TrainDeep deckbuilding with a strong identity of its own.
GriftlandsStory games where conversation and cards share a system.
Darkest DungeonA mood neighbour: stress, party, and unkind places.

Mechanically it sits closest to the Spire-likes that added a map to walk. In mood it is a prison uprising lit like Inscryption and as unkind as Darkest Dungeon.

QUESTIONS

Straight answers

Is there any health bar at all?No. Your cards are your health — deck plus hand plus combo. Enemies work the same way, counting only their deck.
Do I pick a class?Never explicitly. Playing a card grants XP to its class; levels unlock improved cards, and the dominant deck sets your portrait.
What carries between the map and a fight?Hand, deck, discard, shield and mana. Winning a location battle restores shield and mana to their caps.
Can I see all three faction endings in one game?No. Committing to a branch seals the others, so a second loyalty means a second game. You can also spare the Inquisitor and seal the ritual — the quiet ending where you decline all three foundations.
How long is a game?Around 60–90 minutes to the first escape, with the core loop readable in the first fifteen minutes.
Is this the full game?No. Hollowfort is the first region and the beta version. Later regions come after the beta version proves its identity.
PLAYTESTING

What we want from you

01Play the beta versionStart a game in the browser and go as far as you can in one sitting.
02Tell us where you quitThe room, the fight, the moment it stopped being fun. That is the most useful sentence you can write.
03Come back for another sideA second game on a different loyalty tells us whether the branches are worth their cost.
Hollowfort is playable in the browserEscape once. Then pick another side.
DEVELOPERPLAY