Anthony Giovannetti

Co-founder of Mega Crit and lead designer of Slay the Spire

Seattle, United States Indie Game Makers

Anthony Giovannetti at a glance

Known for: Slay the Spire and Slay the Spire II
Based in: Seattle, United States
Active products: Slay the Spire and Slay the Spire II

Facts checked 2026-10-22

About Anthony Giovannetti

Anthony Giovannetti is an American game designer in Seattle who co-founded Mega Crit with Casey Yano and led the design of Slay the Spire. A big fan of the card game Netrunner, for which he ran a community website, he set out to combine roguelikes with deck-builders like Dominion.

Giovannetti recruited expert Netrunner players as playtesters and used gameplay telemetry to balance cards, settling on about 75 cards per character. The team replaced hidden enemy turns with an 'intents' system showing what each enemy will do next, which turned every fight into a readable puzzle and became a genre convention. Slay the Spire's slow early access start in 2017 turned around after streamers picked it up, and it sold 1.5 million copies by March 2019.

After prototyping new ideas, Mega Crit chose a sequel by a coin flip. Slay the Spire II, rebuilt in Godot, launched in early access on 5 March 2026 and sold over three million copies in its first week.

Products by Anthony Giovannetti

Slay the Spire

store.steampowered.com

Roguelike deck-builder that popularised the genre.

1.5M copies by March 2019

Slay the Spire II

store.steampowered.com

Sequel with new characters and four-player co-op, built in Godot.

3M+ copies in first week of…

Timeline

2017 — Launched Slay the Spire in early access, selling only about 2,000 copies in its first weeks.
2018 — Sales took off after a Chinese streamer featured the game; passed 1 million copies by June.
2019 — Released Slay the Spire 1.0 and console versions.
2023 — Moved Slay the Spire II from Unity to Godot after Unity's runtime fee announcement.
2026 — Launched Slay the Spire II in early access on 5 March, selling 3M+ copies in a week.

How Anthony builds

Balance with data: unpicked cards are weak, ubiquitous ones overpowered.
Make enemy intentions visible.
Embrace mods and community feedback.

Anthony Giovannetti FAQ

Who is Anthony Giovannetti?

Who designed Slay the Spire?

Anthony Giovannetti was the lead designer of Slay the Spire, which he co-created with Casey Yano at Mega Crit.

How many copies did Slay the Spire sell?

Slay the Spire passed one million copies by June 2018 and 1.5 million by March 2019, around its full release.

How did Slay the Spire 2 get made?

Giovannetti says Mega Crit chose between a sequel and one of Yano's prototypes by flipping a coin; the sequel won and launched in early access in March 2026.