The 300-question card game challenges metalheads across more than 50 years of heavy music history, culture and strange lore.
Gatekeeper, a new heavy metal trivia card game created in Brisbane, will launch via crowdfunding on 22 September 2026 to fund its first commercial print run.
Featuring 300 multiple-choice questions, Gatekeeper explores metal’s genres, eras, scenes and stranger corners of history. Its questions span classic heavy metal, thrash, doom and glam through to death metal, black metal, nu metal, metalcore, industrial, gothic, symphonic, progressive and alternative metal.
Alongside bands, albums and scene-defining songs, the game delves into infamous controversies, music videos, obscure subgenres, unexpected mainstream crossovers and the bizarre incidents that have become part of metal lore.
Gatekeeper is designed for everyone from casual listeners to devoted metal obsessives. Players answer questions to claim cards, while opponents can attempt to steal incorrectly answered cards by calling “Um, actually.” Every card also contains additional trivia, allowing players to discover new stories and facts as the game unfolds.
“Metalheads accumulate an absurd amount of knowledge about the music and culture they love, but there haven’t been many games built specifically for that audience,” creator Aidan Night said.
“I wanted to create something that lets metal fans put that knowledge to use, argue over ridiculous facts, discover new corners of the genre and have a genuinely fun night together. Nobody knows everything about metal, and that’s where the game becomes interesting.”
DEVELOPED WITH THE METAL COMMUNITY
Gatekeeper was developed over the course of a year through repeated testing with players from different backgrounds and levels of metal knowledge. These sessions helped refine the gameplay, question selection and balance between accessible, challenging and deeply obscure material.
The concept was also expanded into a series of live metal trivia nights held in Brisbane throughout 2025. The events attracted multiple competing teams, including a full-house event, with prizes sponsored by local metal and alternative businesses.
KICKSTARTER AND FIRST PRESSING
The Kickstarter campaign will fund Gatekeeper’s first commercial print run.
The campaign will include first-edition copies of the game, group and industry pledge options, exclusive merchandise and opportunities for supporters, bands, venues and alternative businesses to be memorialised on Gatekeeper’s inaugural “Wall of Death.”
Gatekeeper launches on Kickstarter on Tuesday, 22 September 2026.
OFFICIAL LAUNCH PARTY
The campaign will be celebrated with a free launch party at Evilcorp in Brisbane on Friday, 25 September 2026, beginning at 6:00 pm.
Attendees will be able to play Gatekeeper throughout the evening alongside live performances from:
- Nocturnal Syndrome
- Sanction AD
- Aeon Nexus
- Flamboyant Nightmare
The event is 18+ and free with registration.
ABOUT THE CREATOR
Aidan Night is an independent Brisbane-based goth and alternative metal artist and the founder of Gatekeeper Entertainment.
They are the frontperson and songwriter behind Aidan Night and the Revenants and have spent most of their life immersed in metal, goth, industrial, darkwave, horror and alternative culture.
Gatekeeper grew from the desire to create a social game made specifically for metalheads that celebrates the bands, stories, arguments and wonderfully useless knowledge that make the culture what it is.
Think you know metal? Prove it.
https://www.instagram.com/gatekeepergameofficial/
https://gatekeepergame.com/