Ever played a game that got so deeply stuck in your head that you still thought about it 15 years later?

Around 2011, I got completely hooked on a little mobile dungeon crawler. It had a simple chain-matching mechanic, some RPG elements, and that dangerous "just one more turn" feeling.

Eventually, the game disappeared from the app stores.

I never quite forgot about it, though. Over the years, I kept thinking about what I would add if I could bring something like it back.

Well, I finally did something about it. :)

Meet Gold & Skulls

Gold & Skulls is my new Android puzzle roguelike, inspired by that long-lost game but built around my own ideas.

The concept is simple: you have a 6×6 board filled with coins, potions, shields, swords, and skulls. You connect matching tiles to collect resources, heal, restore armour, or kill enemies.

Then the surviving skulls attack.

That's the basic loop. But being an RPG enthusiast, I couldn't resist adding a few things.

Well, quite a few things.

  • 10 playable character classes with unique strengths and weaknesses
  • 40 skills with their own effects and cooldowns
  • 32 special skull enemies, each with unique abilities
  • 20 equipment upgrades
  • Equipment, character progression, and unlockable abilities
  • 3 game modes and 4 difficulty levels
  • 75 achievements and online leaderboards

One mechanic I'm particularly happy with is fully deterministic combat. There are no random damage rolls or critical hits. Before committing to a move, you can see exactly what your chain will accomplish.

So when you die, you know precisely which terrible decision got you there.

Usually, it was greed. :)

A return to an old hobby

Game development isn't exactly new territory for me.

Back during my university years, I built an Android game called Age of Runes, complete with a custom OpenGL engine, a Blender exporter, and a codebase that probably violated every architectural principle I've learned since.

I've also released smaller projects over the years, including a Hungarian Wordle-inspired game called Szóvadász.

But Gold & Skulls is special because it brings back something I genuinely loved playing.

For once, this wasn't about solving a business problem, creating another developer tool, or experimenting with the latest AI framework.

I just wanted to make a game I'd enjoy playing myself.

Although, being a developer, I naturally ended up using Claude and Remotion to create the game's trailer. Apparently, even when I take a break from programming, I find a way to turn things into code.

No ads. No microtransactions. Just a game.

I also wanted to bring back another thing I miss about older mobile games: buying a game and simply enjoying it.

Gold & Skulls is a premium Android game with a small one-time purchase.

No ads, no in-app purchases, no subscriptions, no mandatory accounts, and no tracking.

It also works completely offline.

I know the mobile gaming market has largely moved in another direction, but I still think there's room for games that respect the player's time and wallet.

Want to give it a try?

The full game is available on Google Play.

There's also a free demo on itch.io, including desktop builds for Windows, Linux, and macOS.

I wrote a more detailed article about the game, my earlier adventures in game development, and how a 15-year-old obsession eventually turned into a released game:

Gold & Skulls: I rebuilt a lost 2011 mobile game as a premium Android roguelike

It's been a refreshing change from my usual software engineering projects.

And I suspect I'm going to lose quite a few more hours playing my own creation.

Some addictions never really disappear. They just become side projects. :)

I'm curious: is there a discontinued game you loved so much that you'd consider rebuilding something inspired by it?