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Watch trailer on Steam ↗Tactichord: Glam Strategy
Ichigoichie · Published by Ichigoichie · Official site ↗
Last updated 3 Oct 2026
1990. End of an era. Glam metal is on the ropes and one band is thrashing the local music scene. Fight for freedom from the mediocrity of your high school life, turning foes into fans while making lyrical choices during battle to create your own rock anthems. Turn-based tactics turned up to eleven!
Indie, Strategy · More free games
In Tactichord: Glam Strategy, you command a band through high school battles, using turn-based tactics to outshine rivals and craft iconic songs.
About this game
Aspiring bassist Diane Eason had difficulty making friends and fitting in at high school. That is, until she discovered the power of rock and a joined a ragtag band of metalheads. Can Diane and her new band land a big record deal or will the stress of living the rock and roll lifestyle tear them apart?
Tactichord is a homage to the 16 and 32-bit story-driven games of the 1990s, recreating the challenges and victories of the last days of analog life before the birth of the internet. The suburban Washington D.C. area is reflected in diner parking lots, shopping malls, and grimy dive bars. Reminiscent of media such as The Commitments, Airheads, Heathers, and My So-Called Life.
A colorful cast of supporting characters, both friends and foes join Diane as she struggles with bullying, imperfection, and obsession.
Join Diane as she grows on a musical journey rooted in glam and heavy metal. Wicked solos and hot licks are composed by Chris Laney, guitarist of Pretty Maids, Ronnie Atkins Band, and At The Movies! More than twelve headbanging tracks are recorded by a live group of guitarists and singers for the dynamic music in the game. Unique songs are generated depending on what riff pattern you choose at each sub-level, and lyrical lines at each player turn. Customize your performance with instruments swaps, real time audio effect pedals, and increasingly wild costumes.
Use melee performances to convert non-believers into heavy metal fans
Build up your resources to unleash each character's epic power move
Create a glam music video of your gameplay, choosing the song’s lyrics
Experience a character-driven story set in 1990s America with a band you can name
Support or antagonize bandmates with dialog choices
Customize musical playback with vanity audio effects, instruments, and costumes
Each character in your band has a limited amount of action points to use each turn. Using melee performances for music haters builds up your heat resource, which when done artfully leads to a massive amount of points and the coveted S+ rank. Convert haters, reach the goal, collect objectives, and survive through increasingly wild encounters.
Each character has his own resource-limited power move to turn your critics into superfans en masse. Camp out and launch a sonic onslaught with your bassist, slide by guards with your guitarist, rock gym bros across the map with your drummer's hurl, or repel and attract miserly old ladies with your vocalist's wail and charm. Strategic use of your super moves increase the number of collateral conversions and are the key in gaining a maximum score.
Playing through each encounter in a level queues up a number of lyrics and musical style choices. After clearing all encounters in a level, enjoy a music video highlight reel of your exploits set to the words and riffs you chose.
At key points in the story make decisions on how to deal with your angst, supporting or dumping on your bandmates. Over time, your choices could deepen rare friendships, or drive them apart.
System Requirements
Will my PC run this? →Minimum
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core Processor 3.60 GHz
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
- Sound Card: Required
- Additional Notes: Will not work on Windows 7/8, so please verify your OS before trying the game.
Recommended
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core Processor 3.60 GHz
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti
- Sound Card: Required
- Additional Notes: Will not work on Windows 7/8, so please verify your OS before trying the game.
Supported Languages
*languages with full audio support
Latest news
AnnouncementsOfficial
Try Tactichord's most punishing levels at Tokyo Game Show
Remember when we said there were lots of things going on recently? This is one of them!We are at one of the biggest gaming events in the world and showing Tactichord: Glam Strategy in the Indie Game Area, Hall 9 Booth C25.Come visit us any day to test your mettle on some of the most difficult sidequests dreamed up by Ella (even I can't beat all of them). We'll have acrylic standees, metal pins, and some sick MPG keychains for those that join our lovely mailing list and try their luck on some tactical challenges in development.See you at Makuhari Messe!/DavidRead full article on Community Announcements (HeroOfSpielburg)AnnouncementsOfficial
Slick new intro, unlocks, and an encounter counter
July was a whirlwind and we had an opportunity to launch the full demo of the game together with the Games Made in Sweden festival, so we seized the opportunity. There were four things though that weren't complete so we've knocked off three of them this month.Eventually, we will have our traditional "151A" boot logo and a finished title screen, but that likely will not arrive untli close to release next year. The next best thing to get newcomers going though is a sick comic intro to start off the game. If you've cleared the demo (rock on), you know there is a flipbook comic story sequence at the end of Act I of Tactichord. We put together a similar experience that takes place in the mind of protagonist Diane while she spends her afternoon stuck in the guidance counselor's office after her run in with the Jennifers.Next up, as we heralded in one of our earlier private playtests, there is growth in our tactical game now. The band plays more together and this levels up their heat, cool, and action points. Currently there is some kind of party growth planned after every major story level in the game! To help you keep track of all of this, there are unlock sequences each time the band grows stronger or you unlock a fun extra like a costume set.Finally, there was one big fish lurking in our "UX Improvement Backlog" that had a design but hadn't been implemented yet. Lots of players had difficulty understanding the different types of solo and vocals battles that gate whether it's Lance or Joey that has access to their power moves, so we helped tighten this up at the same time as giving a peak into each song's roadmap. You can see how many battles (internally reffered to as "encounters") are left before you complete the stage by looking at the lyric and solo choice liner notes at the beginning of each turn. But now in tandem you can also check this progress at the center top of the screen in the "encounter counter". The colored icon helps reinforce the musical choices you'll...Read full article on Community Announcements (HeroOfSpielburg)AnnouncementsOfficial
Tactichord heads to Cologne
It's late August. 🔥 It's last minute panic. 😱 That means it's... Gamescom! 🎸We are flooded with things going on in the next month, so much in fact we forgot to mention we're in Cologne at Gamescom.If you are a person who writes about games (lucky you if you are), then you should come see us in the business area. We are hosted by our lovely sponsors Creative Europe MEDIA and will be based out of their booth in Hall 3.2 D050. Come by to learn more about what's going on in the world crazy glam rock soaked video gaming.Fig. 1. Us planning on which path to take through Koelnmesse to avoid being mobbed by fans.Prost!/DavidRead full article on Community Announcements (HeroOfSpielburg)AnnouncementsOfficial
Dev blog #8
A demo for the summer!Summer is here, and with it comes some really exciting news for Tactichord. After months of hard work and polishing, the demo for Tactichord: Glam Strategy is finally here! We’re thrilled to announce that it’s available right now on Steam. Thanks to everyone who playtested the game and shared their feedback, we were able to release it in time for summer. We really couldn’t have done it without your help and we’d love for you to check it out! Don't forget to leave a review after playing! Demo ContentIn the demo of Tactichord: Glam Strategy, you get to try the first six levels of the game. You’ll get a taste of the core gameplay mechanics, like how to balance your two resources: cool and heat. As you progress through the levels, you’ll unlock super moves that can help you get higher scores and achieve an S+ rank. If you prefer to play the game while relaxing on the couch, don’t worry, the game is fully compatible with Steam Deck. The demo includes the entire first act of the story and some brand-new story elements that will be exciting for both new players and returning playtesters. Follow along on Diane’s journey to become a rock star!New Video Overlays and VFXWe’ve kept working on the music videos to really capture the excess and over-the-top energy of ‘80s glam rock. So far, only Lance and Joey had their own video overlays. A little bit unfair, right? Especially since Diane is supposed to be the main character (stop stealing her spotlight, Joey). This wrong has been righted and both Diane and Ricky have their own solo video overlays in the playback music videos. There is even an extra one with the whole band on stage.We’ve also added some more visual effects. Sparklers, pyro and some fireworks to make every performance feel even more spectacular.The fireworks that have been added to the music videos Rhythm GameMaybe you think the music videos are a little bit too long and you’re still itching to prove yourself, even after the level is finished...Read full article on Community Announcements (ellaolson50)AnnouncementsOfficial
Tactichord: Glam Strategy Demo is Live!
Do you wanna get rocked?After months of hard work, polishing and testing, the demo for Tactichord: Glam Strategy is finally here! You get to experience the first act of Diane's story with six levels of turn-based strategy, character-based super moves and original songs, all for free. You play as Diane Eason, a teenager who has never found a place where she belongs, until she joins a metal band in need of a bassist. Use each band member's strengths to convert haters to fans as you play through the levels and aim for the highest score. If you love the demo as much as we do, don't forget to wishlist the game and leave a comment. Join our Discord if you have any feedback for us or just want to talk.After you clear the demo, please leave a review! This really helps us with visibility on Steam and keep production rolling along. Enjoy the world of glam metal in this new demo! Let's get rocked! // The Ichigoichie teamRead full article on Community Announcements (ellaolson50)
