Konami used this morning’s KONAMI PRESS START, which went out at 8:00 AM PT (11:00 AM ET), to put PROJECT ZIRCON on Steam as a deck-building roguelike. Wishlists opened the same day, with no release date attached, which is the honest version of a first look: you can add the page, you cannot circle a month.

The segment walked like a tutorial with a pulse. You play a nation’s ruler in a world waiting on the Calamity Dragon of the Abyss, and the job is to hit each year’s target before that thing finishes the map for you. A run lasts five in-game years, and if you miss a required goal the dragon does not wait for a recount.

Two phases, three currencies, and a dragon on the calendar

Each year splits into a Strategy Phase and an Admin Phase. Strategy is the expansion hour, when you grow territory and spend Commerce, Industry, and Culture points on Character Cards and Facilities. Those three currencies do different work, so dumping everything into one pile is how a nation looks busy and still dies in winter. Admin is the board, where you deploy the cards you bought and chase extra points by lining up Rank and Type into combos. Facilities sit under that grid and juice the combinations. You can also equip up to three Zirpowers, Konami’s name for the special abilities that tilt a turn when a straight combo is not enough.

The story is not a cutscene parked between hands. Events fire during a run, some with penalties if you ignore them, and the plot branches hard enough that beating the dragon in year five is only the Normal Route. Other endings ask for different objectives, which is a polite way of saying your military score is not always the exam. Player Level rises across attempts and unlocks new Facilities and starting decks, the usual roguelike bribe to come back after the first collapse.

Wishlist today, date later

Steam lists English and Japanese text, single-player, and Konami as both developer and publisher. The store copy repeats the dark-fantasy pitch, the five-year structure, and the multiple endings, then stops short of a window. If you want the version Konami showed this morning, the full Press Start stream is still the official look. PROJECT ZIRCON is on Steam if you would rather wishlist it and wait for a date that actually exists.