Forbidden Solitaire launched on Steam, GOG, and Itch on April 30, and within three days it had already crossed the "Overwhelmingly Positive" threshold on Steam. As of this week, Jake Birkett, owner of co-developer Grey Alien Games, is staring at 1,104 user reviews averaging 96% positive and genuinely cannot explain what is happening.
The game describes itself as a "card-slashing horror game" built around the supposed contents of a cryptic 1995 CD-ROM. That pitch alone should tell you whether this is your kind of thing. The game currently ranks in the upper tier of all Steam releases so far this year on Steam250, which is not a small achievement given how crowded the indie space has become.
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From ten years to three days
Here's the thing: Birkett has been making card games for a long time. Regency Solitaire, Grey Alien Games' original solitaire twist, released back in 2015 and also sits at 96% positive on Steam. But it took that game a full decade to build that standing.
Forbidden Solitaire matched it in 72 hours.
"It took TEN YEARS for us to get this for Regency Solitaire!" Birkett wrote on Bluesky, visibly floored by the comparison. A follow-up post a few days later read: "What is even happening right now? 1000+ reviews, overwhelmingly positive. Thanks everyone!"
By May 2, the game had crossed 10,000 copies sold. SteamDB ownership estimates now put the number well above 20,000.
What actually makes this game tick
The closest comparison point is Inscryption, Daniel Mullins' 2021 card game that blended deckbuilding with horror and meta-narrative weirdness. Forbidden Solitaire approaches the same part of the brain from a different angle: the solitaire structure gives it a familiar skeleton, but the game wraps that around FMV segments, magic gem upgrades you can embed in your character, and an unsettling lo-fi horror aesthetic that leans hard into mid-90s PC game nostalgia.
Gem upgrade system in action
The key here is that the solitaire foundation makes it immediately accessible. You already know the basic loop. The game then uses that familiarity to pull the rug out in ways that feel genuinely earned rather than gimmicky.
Grey Alien Games has kept updates moving since launch. The most recent addition is a New Game+ system, added specifically because players were asking for more ways to replay and challenge themselves. "You can now replay any level, and adjust various parameters to create your own challenges," the developers explained in the update notes.
Why this moment matters for small studios
Forbidden Solitaire is a two-person production hitting numbers that most mid-sized studios would be happy with. The speed at which it built its review count, reaching the overwhelmingly positive milestone faster than almost any comparable release this year, points to something specific: the game found its audience immediately and that audience showed up.
What most players miss when looking at a review milestone like this is that the velocity matters as much as the total. Crossing 1,000 reviews in under two weeks means real word-of-mouth momentum, not a slow drip of players trickling in over months. The game is being recommended, shared, and talked about actively.
For anyone who has been sleeping on the indie card game space, our game reviews section has been tracking several standout releases in this genre, and Forbidden Solitaire belongs in that conversation. If you want more context on navigating the growing library of indie strategy and card games, our gaming guides hub has you covered on getting started with the genre's best entries.
