u/Last-Total9473

Rejected Draft is officially less than a month away from its full Steam release!

If you tried an older version, I’d really encourage you to give it another shot. I’ve completely revamped the early game, rebalanced progression, moved important QoL features earlier, and added a ton of polish and new animations. It should feel a lot better now.

The free Steam demo contains the first 100+ hours of progression, completely free. If you do want to continue, the full version will seamlessly pick up right where the demo ends.

From there, the game introduces a new prestige layer and expands progression from 1e50 Quintessence all the way toward 1e5000.

Whether you’re new or played before, I’d genuinely love to hear what you think!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4574820/Rejected\_Draft/

AI disclosure: Earlier versions of Rejected Draft used AI-generated placeholder art while the game was still being built, but that has now been fully replaced by community-submitted artwork with artist credits. I use AI-assisted development tools in my IDE for coding help and debugging, but the code is written, reviewed, edited, tested, and maintained by me.

Rejected Draft is an incremental autobattler where defeated enemies become part of your build.

You choose which enemies can appear in your world, defeat them, and permanently absorb their stats and abilities. Every enemy is a sketch contributed by a community artist.

The free Steam demo contains 100+ hours of gameplay, and the full game releases August 21.

Steam demo: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4574820/Rejected_Draft/

Rejected Draft is an incremental autobattler where every enemy is a sketch contributed by a community artist.

Players choose which enemies can appear in their world, then permanently absorb the stats and abilities of anything they defeat. The enemies you encounter effectively become your build.

The free Steam demo currently contains 100+ hours of gameplay: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4574820/Rejected_Draft/

Rejected Draft is an incremental autobattler where you play as a discarded doodle fighting through an artist’s sketchbook.

You choose which enemies can appear, defeat them, and permanently absorb their stats and abilities. Rather than choosing a fixed class, the enemies you encounter gradually shape your build.

All enemies are sketches contributed by community artists. The Steam demo offers 100+ hours of free gameplay with no obligation to purchase the full version afterward.

Steam demo: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4574820/Rejected_Draft/

You

Just added my 4th game to itch. Never give up, am I right?

Playable Link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4574820/Rejected_Draft/

Platform: PC Steam Demo / Web

Description: You are a flawed doodle that was thrown in the trash. Battle rival sketches, absorb their powers, and seek your ultimate revenge. Watch numbers soar in this second-screen idle battler. Massive skill tree and randomized prestige mechanic means every journey is distinct.

Free to Play Status:

• [ ] Free to play
• [X] Demo/Key available
• [ ] Paid (Allowed only on Tuesdays with [TT] in the title)

Here are a few first come first serve Steam keys for Demo. I have more - just DM me.
2DAVV-ZR00B-XKLPF
Z58IW-3WN8W-AQYGV
YTNMZ-5G7JF-RNF8H
CYY9H-QIDNG-AII2R
2IMD0-KV355-8P45G

Involvement: Solo dev + active community that created the art and made many gameplay suggestions. I am preparing the game for my first Steam release.

I've got to share this quick postmortem (if you can call it that pre-release) on how the art direction for my current project completely changed thanks to the players.

When I first started building my solo game, I used AI generated images for the placeholders to test if the core loop was actually fun. There was a lot of pushback on early on, which is fair. But the game itself seemed to land, so people stuck around and a Discord community started forming. Some artistically inclined players who enjoyed the game started submitting their own sketches to replace the placeholders.

It started small, but it picked up fast. At this point, over 150 AI sketch assets have been replaced by player-made art, out of about 250 total sketches in the game. Because this became such a big part of the game, I ended up building a system where a single sketch can have multiple versions that rotate over time. That way I don’t have to pick just one interpretation and can include all of them.

The biggest difference isn’t that the player art is “better.” It’s that it actually feels different from piece to piece. The original placeholders all had the same kind of polished look, but they felt interchangeable. The player submissions are way less uniform, but each one has its own take on the idea.

For those interested in some before and after, I put together a quick comparison here https://imgur.com/a/m7sNy6A showing six before and after examples of how much better the player art is (left=placeholder, right=player)

• Plague Doctor (by Pfftpffpfft): They added a really cool flair that perfectly matches the in game flavor text "Cures nothing, looks sick."
• Mimic Chest (by LustHeart): The placeholder is detailed but kind of stiff. The player version simplifies it and leans into the expression, which makes it easier to read and gives it more personality.
• Deep Diver (by Frutchy): The original is basically just a diving helmet. The player version turns it into a lantern fish, which is way more creative and fits the idea in an interesting way.
• Demon Hand (by Pfftpffpfft): This human drawn version looks soooo much more menacing.
• Floating Eye (by jareth91): It actually has its own character and personality now.
• Accessory Assassin (by Stickman with a plus): The original was just a lot of clutter. The player version is much simpler, but somehow ends up being more more memorable.

It has been amazing seeing the game transform from a controversial placeholder situation to a genuine showcase for community artists.

Curious how others would handle this:
If your community started contributing core assets like this, would you lean into it as part of the design, or try to standardize the style?