Dungeons & Kingdoms from Canada-based developer Uncle Grouch Gaming and Boston, Massachusetts-based publisher Camlann Games is set to release into Steam Early Access later this year.
Mashing up popular game genres to create something fresh and fun is a tried and true tactic among indie game developers. Dungeons & Kingdoms is the latest example to hit our radar with its unique blend of high-level kingdom management simulation and fast-paced dungeon delving combat. As you can tell, you get exactly what the name promises with both kingdoms to manage and dungeons to explore.
Today’s new gameplay update trailer has fresh details about what’s in store for the game in the remainder of its lead-up to early access launch later this year. There’s no clear date yet, but the developer is aiming for a Q4 early access release.
Uncle Grouch Gaming is a development studio operated entirely by solo indie game developer Lincoln McCulloch. He’s been working on Dungeons & Kingdoms for over five years full-time from a mixture of private investment and funding from publisher Camlann Games.
The indie publisher is based in Boston, MA, specializing in debut games from new developers, like The Ancients and Underspace.
Visually, Dungeons & Kingdoms evokes a mid-poly art style that feels reminiscent of something like Runescape, a popular MMORPG, or Valheim, another popular fantasy simulation and building game. But instead of leaning into a Viking theme with heavy focus on survival crafting elements, there’s a higher-level approach of entire kingdom management in addition to low-level dungeon diving and frequent combat. You can even manipulate the terrain to build moats or elevate defensive positions like towers.
Compared to Valheim, another popular fantasy sim and building game, Dungeons & Kingdoms has some pretty big differences. “There’s more focus on villager management vs. building structures independently,” Camlann Games chief executive officer and executive producer, Slava Heretz, said in an email interview. “Also Valheim tends to have more protection-based structure building, whereas D&K has more of a village functional concept (housing, lumbermill, blacksmith, etc.). Medieval Dynasty is definitely an inspiration on the building side. D&D games like Neverwinter Nights were definitely the inspiration on the RPG side.”
Since Dungeons & Kingdoms is a single-player only game (for now), you’ll have villagers to assign tasks and boss around to help make your budding settlement as great as it can be. Fortunately, the villagers are relatively autonomous and may even feel like other players from time to time.
“You physically have to interact with villagers to get them to do what you want,” Heretz said. “Otherwise, they are pretty autonomous. I still think the combination of village/kingdom building along with the RPG is fairly unique as well.”
Excitement for this fresh genre hybrid is already growing. When announcing Dungeons & Kingdoms in July 2024, the game garnered over 80,000 wishlists in a single week. As of today, the game has over 150,000 wishlists.
Once it debuts in early access, Camlann Games states there will be a robust tutorial, villager management systems, and full implementation of both RPG adventure and kingdom-building mechanics. In other words, it shouldn’t feel like an unfinished or unpolished mess once players can get their hands on it. Multiplayer and Steam Workshop modding support are planned for the future. And following early access, if all goes well, the plan is to fund a console port.
The publisher and developer are eager for player feedback throughout the early access period, so you can learn more about getting involved in the game’s official Discord server.
If this sounds like something you’d want to check out, you won’t have to wait very long because a free demo will be available during October’s Steam Next Fest event from October 13 – October 20. Following that, a specific early access release date should be confirmed.