Shadowstone, the new game from Secret Door and Dreamhaven, kicks off a surprise public playtest at the Future Games Show Spring Showcase

Shadowstone, the Sunderfolk spinoff announced in February by Secret Door and Dreamhaven, has kicked off a public playtest that's set to run until the game launches into early access.

Announced during today's Future Games Show Spring Showcase, the playtest will give players a sample of the game ahead of release in either solo or multiplayer matches of up to four people. Progress in the playtest will not carry over to the full release, but there's no NDA so you can talk about (and, I would assume, stream) your sessions all you like: "We want to show off Shadowstone to the world, and we’d love your help in showing off what you’ve played," Secret Door said.

Shadowstone is a "tactics roguelike game" for 1-4 players that's set in the same game world as Sunderfolk, the tabletop-inspired RPG from Secret Door that uses smartphones as controllers. Shadowstone opts for a more conventional mouse-and-keyboard approach, and pares back some of Sunderfolk's RPG elements in favor of a "run-based experience" in which players work to escape randomized ruins.

"Every run requires its own strategy based on a constantly evolving pool of skill cards, versatile equipment, and adaptive powerups," Dreamhaven said when Shadowstone was announced.

As I said, the Shadowstone playtest is live now and will run until the early access release. What's interesting about that is, there currently is no early access release: It's set to come out sometime in 2026 but we're still in the first half of March, so that's a pretty wide window. Secret Door said testers will be selected based on multiple factors including "when you signed up," and so encouraged interested followers to sign up now for a better shot at getting in. You can put your name in the hat on Steam.