Game

Grim Saga

A dark fantasy RPG where the world answers for your choices.

On hold

16%

2 complete, 58 in progress, 4 planned, across 64 tracked features.

Grim Saga key art

About Grim Saga

Grim Saga is the studio's long-term flagship: a semi-realistic, medium-poly open world in Unreal Engine 5, dark in tone and driven by consequence. Decisions change relationships, factions, cities and the land itself.

Magic comes down two roads. Natural magic is stable and balanced, the gift of elves and humans. Sacrificial magic is powerful, ritual-bound and corrupting. From there it branches: dark magic of mind control and chaos, light magic of healing and shields, nature magic of wind, roots and fire, and wild magic, raw and unstable, for those who chose sacrifice. At the end of the dark road waits the Chaos Cloud, an endgame spell that corrupts land and people and turns a kingdom into a threat.

Eight gods stand over it all, from Ethirifus, the absent creator, to Death, born of Life and Darkness, who takes no side. Five playable races, four factions with their own reputations, and classes that evolve with how you actually play. Fight in real time with blade, bow and spell; manage a city's people and resources; survive hunger, fatigue and weather.

No paywalls. No microtransactions. Every release free of game-breaking bugs and false promises.

Where it stands: On hold. Grim Saga is the studio's long-term flagship; its Unreal Engine 5 build is paused while Hearthbound and Grim Saga Mini are finished, and what those two prove (the living world, the peoples, the battles) carries straight into it. The world map is being redrawn, so it is not shown here yet. A Kickstarter campaign is planned and will be announced on this page.

Progress

Features

Every feature carries the studio's own progress figure. Red is barely started, amber is under way, green is done and proven in the real game. Click a feature to read what it means.

World

22%
An open world in Unreal Engine 5
40%

A semi-realistic, medium-poly world of forests, mountains, deserts, islands and cities. The beta map is being rebuilt, so it is not shown yet.

In development

The sky world
25%

Floating islands round the vortex, the walled capital on its lake, dwarf holds in the mountains, elf cities in the ancient forests, orc camps and goblin caves: the same world Grim Saga Mini already simulates at pixel scale.

In development

Choice and consequence
20%

Decisions change relationships, factions, cities and the land itself, and the world does not forget.

In development

People with routines and feelings
25%

Townsfolk with homes, jobs, families and tempers, built on the living-world engine proven in Grim Saga Mini.

In development

Thousands of residents with lives of their own
10%

Whole settlements that work, eat, sleep, trade and quarrel whether you are there or not.

In development

Day, night and seasons
15%

A real clock, lit windows at night, harvests that follow the season.

In development

Weather that matters
15%

Rain, fog, snow and storms that slow travel and hurt the badly dressed.

In development

Wildlife that behaves like its kind
10%

Deer that watch and bolt, wolves that hunt in packs, boars that hold their ground.

In development

Caravans, roads and road news
5%

Trade that moves on real roads, raiders who prey on it, and gossip that follows.

In development

The Pantheon
60%

Eight gods, from Ethirifus the absent creator to Death, Nature, Knowledge and Darkness, each with designs on the world.

In development

Forest Protectors
35%

Guardians of the ancient forests, forty feet of living wood, with a finished model and a developing AI.

In development

Survival
15%

Hunger, fatigue, thirst and weather that have to be answered.

In development

A world map that changes
10%

Borders, settlements and roads that move with what happens in play.

In development

Magic

18%
Natural and sacrificial magic
30%

Two starting paths: one stable and balanced, the gift of elves and humans; one powerful, ritual-based and corruptive.

In development

Dark, Light, Nature and Wild
30%

Mind control and chaos; healing, shields and purification; wind, roots and fire; and the raw, unstable magic of those who chose sacrifice.

In development

The Chaos Cloud
20%

The endgame spell of dark mages: it corrupts land and inhabitants and turns a kingdom into a threat.

In development

Spells that grow
15%

Fireball exists in both nature branches and reaches its third level only under special conditions.

In development

Rituals and corruption
10%

Sacrificial magic costs something every time; the witch's transformation is what it costs in the end.

In development

Shamans and seers
5%

Those who read the gods and bargain with them.

In development

Characters

17%
Five playable races
45%

Humans, elves, dwarves, orcs and goblins, each with its own cities, customs and magic.

In development

Character creation
30%

In progress: face, build, race, origin and the first choices that shape a class.

In development

Classes that evolve with play
15%

Warrior, mage, rogue, hunter and citizen, shaped by what you actually do rather than a menu.

In development

Factions and reputation
15%

Light, Dark, Evil and Neutral, each with its own opinion of you that spreads by word of mouth.

In development

Companions
5%

People who travel with you, with their own loyalties and limits.

In development

Family, marriage and heirs
5%

Court, marry, raise children, and continue as one of them when you fall.

In development

Growing older
5%

Years pass; so do you.

In development

The Kifa
15%

A people of the sky world with their own place in it; concept sketches exist.

In development

Giants and the Unheard
20%

Thirteen-foot giants with bone-studded spears, and the thing with mouths in its palms. Concept art is finished.

In development

Combat

11%
Real-time melee
20%

Blades, blunt weapons and spears with windup, reach and recovery.

In development

Ranged combat
15%

Bows and thrown weapons; arrows stopped by walls and trees, not by water.

In development

Magic in combat
15%

Spells on the hotbar with mana, cooldowns and consequences.

In development

Blocking, dodging and stamina
10%

A block that tires you, a perfect block in a short window, a dodge that costs stamina.

In development

Armour by body part
5%

Protection that covers what it covers and nothing else.

In development

Wounds and death that stay
10%

Leg wounds slow you, head blows daze you, and the dead stay dead.

In development

Enemies with brains
10%

Range, openings, feints, flanking and nerve; packs that take turns.

In development

Mounted travel and combat
0%

Horses and oxen for the long roads, and fighting from the saddle.

Planned

Society

6%
Towns with real trades
10%

Smiths, woodworkers, farmers, clerks, jailers and stable hands, each with a workplace and a day.

In development

Shops and ownership
5%

Own a shop, stock it, hire clerks, and watch customers come.

In development

Crime, witnesses and the watch
5%

People learn only what they saw; the watch hunts, demands surrender, and drags you to a cell.

In development

Government and laws
5%

Offices, laws, petitions and votes, with unrest and your own popularity in the balance.

In development

Speeches to a crowd
0%

Stand in the square and say your piece; people agree or heckle by their own views.

Planned

Interrogation and justice
0%

A crime unless the law allows it.

Planned

City management
15%

People, resources and the growth of a town under your hand.

In development

Deep faction politics
10%

Alliances, betrayals and wars that emerge from what the factions want.

In development

Building and gathering

5%
Fishing and foraging
5%

Planned.

In development

Chopping trees and quarrying stone
5%

Real materials from real trees and boulders, with permits where the law asks for them.

In development

Mining
5%

Underground, by lantern light, with supports, ore and cave-ins.

In development

Building a town
5%

A steward who plans, buys what is missing and pays builders real coin.

In development

Custom home-building
5%

Planned.

In development

Crafting
5%

Planned.

In development

War

4%
Organised battles
5%

Squads by culture, formations, archers first, flanks and routs.

In development

The commander's map
5%

Select squads and give orders from a map, then return to your own two feet.

In development

Raising armies
5%

Bounties, hired bands and levies paid in real coin.

In development

Sieges
0%

Walls, gates, bowmen on the wall and what it takes to bring them down.

Planned

Peoples and creatures

8%
The necromancer and his dead
10%

Calm, provoked or wrathful; skeletons that take orders and zombies whose bites turn.

In development

Goblin camps and caves
10%

A camp, a cave behind it, and a pot on the fire.

In development

Elf wardens
5%

Wardens who hunt whoever fells the ancient forests.

In development

Dwarf holds
10%

Holds in the grey mountains that brew, trade and brawl.

In development

Orc tribes
10%

Camps round a fire pit, duels in a ring, challenges answered.

In development

Werewolves
5%

A hierarchy of their own under the moon.

In development

Release

56%
Trailers
15%

A first atmosphere trailer and a second gameplay trailer, once the beta map is ready for footage.

In development

Kickstarter
10%

A campaign is planned. The date will be announced here first.

In development

No paywalls, no microtransactions
100%

A promise, not a feature: one purchase.

Available now

No game-breaking bugs at release
100%

Also a promise: every release free of game-breaking bugs and false promises.

Available now

See it

Concept art

System requirements

Grim Saga is an Unreal Engine 5 title and will need a modern gaming PC. Requirements will be published once the beta map is performance-tested.

ComponentMinimum
Operating systemWindows 10 or 11 (64-bit)

Content and age notice

Grim Saga is a mature dark-fantasy game: violence, torture, corruption and death are part of its world. A content rating will be sought before release.

Read the content policy

Follow Grim Saga

News and updates

Full Grim Saga news archive

Grim Saga is not for sale yet. The store opens when there is something to buy; people on the list hear first.