Dog Witch enchants the roguelike deckbuilder dice genre with a magical twist

The roguelike deckbuilder genre continues to grow, so much so that even the dogs are getting in on the action. Meet Dog Witch, your playable character, who is a hybrid between a dog and a witch. Equipped with enchanted dice, the Dog Witch roguelike mechanics reward adaptation and experimentation.

Your overarching objective is to overthrow your former master, the Mad Master Wizard, and roll your way through the enemies you will meet along the way. During your time with the Dog Witch gameplay, you’ll have to balance luck with strategy by chaining attacks and using items to flip the fight in your favor.

What is Dog Witch?

Dog Witch gameplay is based on roguelike deckbuilder mechanics, where the spells you use to fight back against bizarre enemies are fueled by enchanted dice. The Dog Witch demo begins with the ability to customize your dog in terms of the size of your dog, its name, face shape, coat color, eyes, nose, tail, and even its bark. Once the character creation is over, you will be thrown straight into the action and come face-to-face with your first opponent.

To begin your turn, you must roll the dice, which will spit out five abilities that you have in your build, and all five can be used in a single turn. These abilities relate to your wand, book, curse, spell, summon, bone, ring, bracelet, necklace, and hat. If you aren’t happy with the combination of abilities you got on the first roll, Dog Witch features limited rerolls per round that you can use to try and get your desired items.

When the turn-based combat encounter ends in your victory, you will be presented with three cards that provide upgrades to your build in the form of artifacts. Examples include a Steel Bone that allows your shield to last an extra turn, and a Vine Necklace that uses your Mana to block damage.

There are over 150 artifacts in the full Dog Witch game, including corrupted variants that are high-risk but provide the opportunity to reap greater rewards. Corrupted variants range from a Ramulet that grants the chance to stun the target enemy and deal four damage to adjacent enemies, but means you take two damage, to a Wrench wand that charges itself after each use, but also means you take damage. Since every dice roll fuels your spells and combinations, you can end up with an extremely powerful build that brings the fight to even the strongest foes.

In terms of the enemies you will face in the Dog Witch game, expect a relentless beehive, Russian Dolls with guns, a snake frog king, and more oddities. Each encounter acts as a puzzle that is designed to test your synergy-building skills. Upon defeating an enemy, you will travel to the next area on your witch’s broomstick. If you are eliminated, you will begin a new run with the starter items, and enemy creatures will appear in a different order, so you can’t go through every run defeating familiar enemies in the same way.

When will Dog Witch be released?

The full Dog Witch game will launch on November 5, 2025. It will be available to play on PC via Steam. From this point on, you will be able to encounter all the enemies in the game, experiment with all the items to create different kinds of synergies, and keep your witchy pup looking its best. A price for Dog Witch has yet to be announced.

Who is the developer of Dog Witch?

The Dog Witch developer is an indie creator who goes by the name of Heckmouse, who has been working on the game since 2019. It has gone through playtests and closed betas during this time. Dog Witch will be Heckmouse’s first published game. The developer has already released a roadmap of what’s to come in Dog Witch in the not-so-distant future. The first major update will land in December and bring gameplay stats, unlockable dogs, and rewards. The second major update in January will come with leaderboards and feather curse and witch item sets, while the third major update in March will bring a new world with fresh enemies and a pearl item set. To maintain your witchy look, each major update will introduce a new witch hat and further customization options.

How long is the Dog Witch demo?

The length of the Dog Witch demo depends on how long it takes you to beat the eight encounters that the demo consists of. Even if you manage to beat the game, the range of items on offer that you can build combinations with adds a whole lot of replayability to the game, so you may find that one playthrough isn’t enough to test out all of the abilities on offer. Even though each run is designed to be completed in short bursts, there are plenty of opportunities for run optimizations that can keep you coming back for more.