Trivia Deal combines a bunch of elements that are sure to sucker gamers in. It’s a roguelike, with trivia elements, and the sort of frustration the former gives at failing a run, that’ll make you want to improve your skills in the latter. And in a world where there are more trivia nights at local pubs than years prior, this game may be coming along at the perfect time.

The core of Trivia Deal is that there is a row of booster packs/cards that you’ll click on to open a trivia question, in the category that’s on the package. They can range from General Knowledge all the way through to Geography, Science, and more specifically, topics like James Bond and Disney, as well as niche areas to hone in on. The cards that are on the board you’ll be flipping at the start of the game, as you begin your run, will always be in the more general categories, but you’ll have your own card that you’ll be able to use to replace a category you don’t like. Each run begins with you picking one from three packs of these, and then sometimes you’ll earn one by getting a chest in the card, or by purchasing them with gold between rooms/levels as you progress.

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Knowing when to play and use your cards, or even special skills you can purchase, which will do things like cutting out wrong answers, or even doubling the points you get from getting a correct answer, is as much a part of the game as getting the trivia questions correct. But you’ll also feel like an idiot when you play your “I’m the horror movie guy” quiz pack to cover a weakness in sports questions just to get it wrong anyway.

Another part that plays in the tactics of how you’ll seek the longest runs in Trivia Deal is paying attention to the numbers in the top right-hand corner of the questions/cards. These tell you how many points you’ll get for getting the question wrong, and also how many you’ll lose if you get it wrong. It may be okay to risk it on a one-pointer in a category you’re not strong in and save your three-point strong category card to replace it with something of a similar number later in your run.

Clearing a row of cards earns you five bonus points, and you’ll keep going as long as you’re getting questions right and have points/life to spend. However, get too many questions wrong, and you’ll soon end up with 0 points and get game over, especially since getting a question wrong locks the questions in that row behind a penalty of points.

You can both check out Trivia Deal at PAX AUS this year in the Indie Showcase area, but there’s also a demo for the game on Steam available now to check out.

[Explosion Network attended PAX Australia 2025 with a provided Media Pass.]