Indie games and major studio releases constantly cycle in and out of Game Pass, adding a diverse mix of experiences to break up the list of mainstays from studios like Rare.Six games are leaving Xbox Game Pass on June 23, 2025, including Square Enix’sFinal Fantasy 8 HDand WayForward’sRiver City Girls. Nine were confirmed to replace them throughout the first half of the month in an Xbox Wire post on November 1, withOne Step From Edendropping November 11 alongsideGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas - The Definitive Edition.
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One Step From Eden’s Development
As with many unique indie games,One Step From Edenbegan as a passion project for one individual: Thomas Moon Kang. According to the game’s press kit, development began in April 2016 with Kang hoping to fill a void left by theMega Man Battle Networkseries; mixing its grid-based real-time combat with roguelike elements inspired byFTL,Nuclear Throne, and more.
Kang was working as a user interface (UI)/user experience (UX) designer for numerous places between 2015 and 2019, including his alma mater Rutgers University, Swift Capital, and PayPal. The Kickstarter forOne Step From Edenlaunched alongside a demo in January 2019, going on to raise $70,000 USD off its $15,000 funding goal. In April 2019, Kang started Ristaccia LLC, andOne Step From Edenreleased for PC, PS4, and Switch underpublisher Humble Bundlein March 2020. Just 13 people are credited as working on the game on its official website.
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What Xbox Game Pass Subscribers Should Expect in One Step From Eden
ThoughOne Step From Edenis decisively not narrative-driven, there is an underlying lore. Players have to work their way through eight worlds using one of nine unlockable Heroes (starting with the de facto mascot Saffron). These characters traverse a post-apocalyptic landscape with four distinct environments, each full of magical beasts and rampant machinery. Their goal is a safehaven called Eden, and every death lets players know how close they got to the city until they’re just one step away.
While story isn’t at the forefront, a lot of character is on display thanks to the game’s character designs and snappy menu design - clearly supercharged by Kang’s prior experience withUI/UX development. Players not only have a choice of which zone they’d like to explore next, they also choose between multiple routes through each that include an inherent risk-reward spread of stages. In each stage, players move their character along a 4x4 grid and cast attacks or buffs from their deck, most impacting a specific area across the board that differs card-to-card.
Player agency branches out exponentially. Each character starts with an inherent attack and a themed deck, but players can decide to weigh the game’s rewards toward at most two of 10 specific focuses that encompass niche play styles. For example, Anima is elemental spells, Hexawan primarily summons structures, and Phalanx is all about buffing shields. Resources like money and health can be used to trim down a deck or upgrade cards mid-run, not unlikefellow Game Pass titleSlay the Spire, and the further players get the more experience they receive - unlocking new cards, artifacts, as well as alternate skins and starting decks for each character.
One Step From Edenis available now for PC, PS4, and Switch. It will release via Xbox Game Pass for PC and consoles on June 15, 2025.
