High Roller Penny Announced for Steam, a Pachinko Roguelike Built Around Bunny Girls and a Death Game

Kniv Studio Co., Ltd. announced High Roller Penny on August 13, 2026, a pachinko-inspired roguelike currently in development for PC via Steam. Its core systems revolve around pegboard physics, build crafting, resource management, and increasingly demanding score quotas.

Those runs take place inside Yami-Pachi, an underground gambling organization that uses debtors as players in illegal life-or-death games. The protagonist is forced into its High Roller competition alongside Penny, with freedom from debt waiting at the top of the rankings.

Quick Summary

• Title: High Roller Penny
• Format: Video game
• Concept: Pachinko-inspired roguelike
• Steam genres: Indie, Simulation
• Developer: Kniv Studio Co., Ltd.
• Publisher: Kniv Studio Co., Ltd.
• Announcement date: August 13, 2026
• Platform: PC via Steam
• Status: Coming soon
• Release date: Not announced
• Price: Not announced
• Mode: Single-player
• Family Sharing: Supported
• Gameplay: Pegboard physics, balls, score quotas, upgrades, combos, and builds
• Build components: Special pegs, balls, and passive effects
• Resources: Tickets, pegs, balls, and possessions that can be resold
• Key character: Penny
• Organization: Yami-Pachi
• Premise: Illegal life-or-death gambling using debtors as participants
• Goal: Defeat rival Bunny Girls and climb to the top rank
• Languages: English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese
• Indonesian: Not supported
• Full audio: Not currently listed
• Storage: 5 GB
• Demo: Not announced

Announcement, Trailer, Steam, and High Roller Penny Visuals

Yami-Pachi Puts Debtors' Lives on the Line

Yami-Pachi is an underground organization that runs illegal life-or-death gambling games with debtors serving as its players. The group is portrayed as wielding extensive influence over casinos and acting as a major source of dirty money in the undercity.

The protagonist is one of those debtors. Their situation takes a sharp turn after Penny, a Bunny Girl who also works as a debtor handler, knocks them unconscious and abducts them to Yami-Pachi.

Penny invokes the High Roller Rule, placing Bunny Girls against each other under the organization's watch. The player must help her defeat the competition and work their way to the top of the rankings.

Winning gives Penny the glory she is chasing and fully repays the protagonist's debts. Failing a High Roller, however, can lead directly to execution.

Ball Physics and Score Quotas Drive Each Round

High Roller Penny starts with a straightforward action: drop a ball from the top of a pegboard and earn points whenever it touches a peg.

Every round has a quota that must be cleared with the available balls. Reaching that target rewards the player and keeps the run alive, while clearing several rounds eventually leads to the next stage and another Bunny Girl.

Because points depend on the path of each ball, peg placement becomes increasingly important. The challenge grows from choosing a good drop point into designing a board that can keep balls moving, trigger additional effects, and sustain larger combos.

Missing the quota ends the run, connecting the score system directly to the game's fiction rather than treating it as an isolated arcade objective.

Special Pegs and Balls Can Reshape a Build

Round rewards can be spent at a prize exchange to obtain new pegs and balls. AUTOMATON reports that its selection appears to be randomized, meaning players cannot necessarily rely on assembling the exact same setup every run.

Special pegs can be installed around the board and offer more than higher point values. Examples shown so far include a wide peg that launches a ball upward and another that duplicates a ball on contact.

Balls carry their own properties as well. Combined with passive effects, these components can produce synergies and cascading combos that dramatically change how a board generates points.

Progression is therefore not simply about collecting stronger items. It is about finding interactions between the current layout, ball behavior, peg effects, and whatever upgrades become available during that particular run.

Selling Resources Makes Adaptation Part of the Run

Players can also sell much of what they own. Steam specifically mentions tickets, pegs, and balls, allowing an ineffective part of a build to be dismantled when resources are needed elsewhere.

That introduces an economic tradeoff. Selling an underperforming component may help fund a better setup, but stripping too much from the board can reduce its ability to survive the next quota.

Casino opponents are also said to bring special tricks of their own. A build that dominates one stage may therefore be less effective against the next rival, giving players another reason to adjust their setup rather than settle on a permanent configuration.

Five Languages and PC Requirements Are Already Listed

Steam currently supports English, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese for the interface and subtitles. Full audio is not marked for any of those languages, while Indonesian is not supported.

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Separate announcement trailers have also been released in English, Japanese, and Korean. The official Japanese version uses the title 『ハイ・ローラー ペニー』.

For PC, Steam lists an Intel Core i3 or equivalent and Intel UHD Graphics 620 or equivalent as the minimum CPU and GPU. The recommended setup calls for an Intel Core i5, 8 GB RAM, and NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti or equivalent. Both require DirectX 11 and 5 GB of storage.

One specification remains unusual: the minimum memory field currently reads 4 MB RAM. Kniv Studio has not clarified that value, so it is safer to preserve the current Steam listing instead of silently assuming that it should read 4 GB.

Why This Matters

1) Pachinko is the actual game system

Ball trajectories, peg placement, collisions, and triggered effects directly determine performance, turning the pegboard itself into the player's roguelike build.

2) Upgrades change behavior, not just numbers

Pegs that launch or duplicate balls, different ball properties, and passive effects can reshape how an entire board functions rather than providing simple stat increases.

3) The economy encourages mid-run pivots

Selling tickets, pegs, and balls gives players a way to abandon an underperforming idea and redirect resources toward a new synergy.

4) The death game gives score quotas narrative stakes

Missing a target is tied to Yami-Pachi's life-or-death rules, making the scoring system part of the story as well as the gameplay loop.

Game Information

Additional confirmed details currently include:

• High Roller Penny is already available to wishlist
• Steam lists single-player and Family Sharing
• Steam Achievements are not currently listed
• official Steam Deck compatibility has not been announced
• announcement trailers are available in English, Japanese, and Korean
• Steam currently lists Windows system requirements
• the minimum GPU is Intel UHD Graphics 620 or equivalent
• the recommended GPU is NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti or equivalent
• DirectX 11 is required
• required storage is 5 GB
• the minimum memory field currently reads 4 MB RAM and has not been clarified by the developer
• wishlist and official store details are available through the High Roller Penny Steam page
• developer information is available through the official Kniv Studio website

Closing

High Roller Penny expands the easy-to-understand idea of dropping a ball through pegs into a broader roguelike built around special components, distinct ball behavior, passive effects, randomized rewards, resource selling, and opponents with their own tricks. Those systems give each run room to evolve instead of locking players into a single scoring strategy.

The game remains in development for PC via Steam and is currently listed as Coming soon. Its release date, price, additional Bunny Girls, and deeper progression details have yet to be announced by Kniv Studio.