Today, solo developer Bigosaur — known best for breakout titles Son of a Witch and Watermelon Party — has proudly launched its basketball roguelike deckbuilder, Clutchtime™: Basketball Deckbuilder.
Clutchtime is the culmination of decades of game development experience and passionate hobbies from developer Milan Babuškov, combining the strategic deckbuilding elements of Balatro with one of the world’s most beloved pastimes, basketball. With inspirations from hometown superstars Nikola Jokić, Bogdan Bogdanović, Boban Marjanović, and more, the Serbian developer has turned his love for game development into a passion project using basketball as the medium.
Watch the Clutchtime™: Basketball Deckbuilder launch trailer here:
YouTube | Download
Clutchtime was created so that anybody, regardless of basketball knowledge, can easily pick up the game and understand how to play. Each basketball term is a card: Play passes, shots, steals, rebounds, and blocks. Substitute players, call timeouts, and challenge the calls, just like in the big leagues. You can even complain to the refs if that’s what it takes!
Additionally, Clutchtime has a free demo available on Steam for players to jump into and get a feel for the game’s unique mechanics.
Key features of Clutchtime™: Basketball Deckbuilder:
- Get’cha Head in the Game: Clutchtime takes the deckbuilder genre and gives it a unique spin, with each team having a starting deck of five starter players with three cards representing their skills. Players will use these to formulate their decks around real-life basketball plays and team synergy strategization.
- Two Modes to Take On: Play through two different game modes — “Elimination”, where players take on tournaments in true roguelike style, or “Classic”, a typical basketball season where players can lose some games, but have to qualify for the playoffs to compete for the Championship title.
- Never Let Them Know Your Next Move: Watch for random events during the season where players can upgrade cards, trade with other teams, duplicate favorite cards, and more!
- It’s Like You’re Really There!: Clutchtime‘s audio features unique mixing. The developer attended live games to record audio, mixing it into the soundtrack to give the feel of a live basketball arena while playing. The crowd is dynamic and reacts to the current noise level in the game, so any block, dunk, or other fancy move will trigger the fans’ cheering.
Clutchtime™: Basketball Deckbuilder is out now on Windows PC via Steam for $15.99.
For more information about Bigosaur and Clutchtime™: Basketball Deckbuilder, visit bigosaur.com/clutchtime, follow on Bluesky, X (Twitter), Facebook, and YouTube, and join the community on Discord.
About Bigosaur
Bigosaur is a self-funded indie game studio officially founded in 2013 in Serbia. Led by solo developer Milan Babuškov, Bigosaur utilizes an original in-house game engine to develop games for PC, Linux, macOS, Nintendo Switch, Android, iPhone, the Amiga 500, and web browsers.
Known for titles Son of a Witch, A New Life, and Watermelon Party, the studio’s mission is to craft original game concepts and pioneer new subgenres. Bigosaur’s titles have also been featured by BBC, IndieCade, Indie Prize, DevGAMM, and other international showcases.