Slay the Spire 2 is only happening because the development team was inspired by the community's love for the original roguelike deck builder.
Developer Mega Crit announced the widely anticipated sequel earlier this week at the Triple-i showcase with a gorgeous look at the game's new classes and world. Slay the Spire 2 is headed to early access sometime in 2025, and you can thank the original's dedicated fan base for the sequel's existence.
"Slay the Spire's success comes from our community," the sequel's Steam page reads. "It sounds corny, but the extra mile many of you went to report issues, translate content/announcements, create long video essays, make excellent (lol) tier lists, and draw goofy or gorgeous fan art is the reason we're doing it all again."
Essentially, the fan base's support for the deck builder means the team "loves" developing games in tandem with the players, which probably inspired Mega Crit to pursue another early access route.
Concrete details on the sequel are a little fuzzy, but we know Slay the Spire is introducing fresh strategies to master, updated visuals, expanded "modability," and "new ways to play that aren't announced yet."
Slay the Spire 2 is also built on a new engine after the developer had some harsh public words for Unity amid its controversial pricing debacle. To give us a taste of what the new engine can do, Mega Crit recently made a free card battler in just a couple of weeks. (It's a fun jab and a fun freebie!)