a lot of boring people are still waiting for “the citizen kane of video games,” but in the meantime, i think i’ve found “the la trahison des images of video games” in gil lawson‘s rogue light deck builder, making me just a little less boring than everyone else.

la trahison des images, also known as the treachery of images, is pretty straight-forward as far as bare aesthetics go. in 1929, belgian artist rené magritte painted a picture of a tobacco pipe under which he wrote the statement “ceci n’est pas une pipe,” or, “this is not a pipe.” that simple phrase combined with a standard object went on to become one of the most enduring images of the post-world war i surrealist art movement.

“the famous pipe. how people reproached me for it!” magritte told belgian women’s magazine femmes d’aujourd’hui in 1966, according to an english translation provided in the coffee table book magritte: the true art of painting. “and yet, could you stuff my pipe? no, it’s just a representation, is it not? so if i had written on my picture ‘this is a pipe,’ i’d have been lying!”

if an artist painting a pipe and then turning to viewers and saying, “hey, that’s not actually a pipe… you know that right?” can serve as an example of the treachery of images, it stands to reason a video game named for a popular genre without actually belonging to that genre can do the same for, say, the treachery of words. said aloud, rogue light deck builder might sound like a roguelike deckbuilder, but that couldn’t be further from the truth, no matter how apt the name itself might be.

rogue light deck builder was first released to itch.io on may 6, 2024 before hitting steam on march 17, 2025. its name is a snarky reference to the roguelike deckbuilder genre popularized by games like slay the spire and dicey dungeons and utilized ad nauseam by indie developers over the last several years. breaking the term down to its basic components, a roguelike deckbuilder is a game in which you build a deck of cards and/or abilities for use over repeated, often procedurally generated runs. some squabble over the loose association roguelikes and roguelites have with the actual rogue for which they’re named but i literally could not care less.

“your house needs a deck. you have a hammer. freedom is $1,000,000,” rogue light deck builder‘s short description reads, our first clue its name might not be as literal as it seems. or perhaps literal in a different way.

rogue light deck builder is about building a deck, sure, but of wood, not of cards, like the kind attached to a home. and your job doesn’t play out via roguelike- or roguelight-style gameplay mechanics as much as it’s plagued by an unreliable, rogue light that switches off at regular intervals.

the entire game actually revolves around pounding nails into planks using a physics-based hammer controlled by your mouse. you earn money with perfect swings and lose money when you hit your hand. you squash bugs for extra cash. you use the money to upgrade your equipment. you keep upgrading your equipment and building decks until you can save $1,000,000 to buy the key that frees you from your hellish life of eternal deckbuilding. you have a husband.

rogue light deck builder is not a “play forever” kind of game. it does not simulate addiction like balatro. i still boot up the binding of isaac every so often 14 years after developer edmund mcmillen released the original flash version and 11 years after nicalis revamped it with pixel art and a better gameplay engine. i have beaten each of its multiple bosses roughly 13,000 times and will probably beat them 13,000 times more over the course of my lifetime. i do not foresee a future where i do not play the binding of isaac at least once a week. that fact is both comforting and horrifying.

the ultimate treachery of words is that rogue light deck builder, unlike the genre which its name parodies, is made to end. it threatens eons of digital servitude but only holds you for about an hour before releasing you to the rest of your life. if you somehow develop an obsession with its wonky hammer and wiggly pop-ups and venture into the “endless mode” teased on the main menu, you’ll find yourself unable to drive home even a single nail. the game simply returns a grade of “good” for every swing, and the nail will never move. rogue light deck builder wants you to leave. it is telling you to stand up and follow your husband out the door and into the sun.