Gatekeeper Heavy Metal Trivia Card Game

GATEKEEPER HEAVY METAL TRIVIA GAME

WHAT'S IN THE BOX? 

GENRES AND QUESTION CATEGORIES

HOW TO PLAY

REWARD TIERS - SUPPORT THE GATEKEEPER AND DIGITAL EDITION

REWARD TIER: STANDARD GAME EDITION 

INTRODUCING: THE INAUGURAL WALL OF DEATH

REWARD TIER: GATEKEEPER'S CHOSEN

REWARD TIER: FOUNDING GATEKEEPER

REWARD TIER FOR RETAILERS/VENUES: SCENE STRONGHOLD

REWARD TIERS FOR BANDS: BAND STRONGHOLD AND INNER CIRCLE

OUR GOAL:

Gatekeeper started with a simple question: why hasn't anybody made a proper heavy metal trivia card game yet?

After 18 months of writing, designing, testing, prototyping, promoting, and running live trivia events, it has become the first step in a much bigger vision: a heavy music game and entertainment brand built by metalheads, for metalheads.

Backing this campaign helps fund the first pressing, but it also helps lay the foundation for future expansion packs, retail stockists, venue partnerships, live trivia events, and a wider community built around metal knowledge, ridiculous scene lore, and the shared joy of arguing about heavy music with your friends.

Backing Gatekeeper means getting the first edition of the game while helping build the foundation for everything that comes next. 

This is more than a one-off deck. It is the beginning of Gatekeeper. 

Back the first pressing. Open the first gate.

WHAT WE'VE ACHIEVED SO FAR

KICKSTARTER TIMELINE

PLAYER TESTIMONIALS

TESTED BY METALHEADS

Gatekeeper has been shaped by players throughout its development. Before we ever brought the game to a public event, Gatekeeper went through multiple private test groups and repeated play sessions with friends and fellow metalheads. These sessions helped us refine the gameplay, improve the selection and wording of questions, and find the right balance between accessible knowledge and genuinely difficult trivia.

We paid attention to more than how many questions people answered correctly. We watched for questions that sparked discussions, provoked arguments, got the biggest laughs, prompted stories, caught experienced metalheads off guard or brought the game to a halt. That feedback helped us understand what made a question accurate, interesting and genuinely fun to play around a table.

In mid 2025, we expanded Gatekeeper into a series of live heavy metal trivia nights in Brisbane, Australia to introduce the game to a wider audience. These events combined questions from the card game with additional categories created specifically for a live team trivia format. Players competed across heavy music knowledge, metal history, ridiculous scene lore and the kind of trivia that makes metalheads argue, laugh and second guess everything they thought they knew. The nights had exactly the energy we hoped for. Multiple teams competed, local metal and alternative businesses sponsored prizes, and the events attracted strong crowds, including a full house.

In 2026, we returned the focus to the physical card game through a series of public Early Access Nights at Evilcorp in Fortitude Valley. Local metalheads were invited to play Gatekeeper before launch, meet other players and give direct feedback on the game. Sessions reached full registration, and returning players began bringing friends and actively supporting the campaign.

Together, these stages helped us test Gatekeeper in private groups, around public gaming tables and in a live event setting. They proved that the game works as a social experience and that there is real enthusiasm within the metal community for a game built specifically around metal music, history and culture.

People showed up, got invested and played hard. They also helped prove that Gatekeeper can grow beyond the first deck into future expansions, live events, venue partnerships and a wider community built around heavy music.

ABOUT THE CREATOR

FROM THE CREATOR:

I’ve been obsessed with metal for most of my life, not just the music itself, but the die-hard culture, labyrinthine subgenres, crazy stories, and weird lore that surround it. 

I created Gatekeeper because I wanted a metal trivia game that actually felt like it had been made by someone who understands the culture. Something broad enough to represent metal across generations and subgenres, challenging enough for serious fans, but accessible enough that everyone at the table can still compete and have fun.

Gatekeeper brings together everything I love about heavy music: the history, the community, the deep dives, the absurd stories, and the joy of meeting other people who understand the obsession.

I hope you enjoy playing it as much as I enjoyed making it.