Summary
Stray Kite Studios, a team of industry veterans with experience on titles like BioShock, Borderlands, and Age of Empires, announces Wartorn, their first original game. This real-time strategy roguelite boasts destructible environments, impactful moral choices, and a striking painterly art style. Launching in early access on Steam and the Epic Games Store in Spring 2025.
Wartorn is the debut original title from Dallas-based Stray Kite Studios, established in 2018 and currently employing around 30 people. Their previous work includes the standalone Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep: A Wonderlands One-Shot Adventure and numerous creative maps for Fortnite.
This new game casts players into the roles of two elven sisters on a perilous quest to reunite with their family. Their journey will be fraught with challenging battles and morally complex decisions.
Wartorn: Chaos Defined
Wartorn's fantasy world is deeply fractured and chaotic, presenting numerous challenges to the player. This chaos extends to the game's physics-driven environmental destruction, ensuring each playthrough is unique and unpredictable. The overarching theme explores finding purpose amidst this chaos, emphasizing sacrifice, survival, and the strength of familial bonds. As co-founder and creative director Paul Hellquist states, "We’ve poured our hearts into creating a game that not only entertains but also makes players think deeply about sacrifice, survival, and the bonds that unite us."
Tough Choices, Dynamic Combat
Beyond combat, players face difficult moral dilemmas, such as choosing who to save or feed, significantly impacting the narrative and replayability. Combat itself offers a dynamic magic system, allowing players to creatively combine elemental forces (fire, water, lightning) for diverse tactical options. Spells interact uniquely with each other and the environment (e.g., shocking enemies in water).
We’ve poured our hearts into creating a game that not only entertains but also makes players think deeply about sacrifice, survival, and the bonds that unite us.
Wartorn's roguelite progression system allows upgrades to carry over between runs, easing subsequent attempts. The painterly art style enhances the game's dramatic setting. For maximum accessibility, the game features a slow-motion mode allowing for precise command inputs during intense moments. This highly anticipated title is set for an early access release on Steam and the Epic Games Store in Spring 2025.
