Summary
- Stray Kite Studios has announced Wartorn.
- The newly revealed game is a real-time strategy roguelite with destructible environments, tough moral choices, and a painterly aesthetic.
- Wartorn is planned to launch in early access on Steam and EGS in spring 2025.
Wartorn is the name of the next game from Stray Kite Studios, a studio comprised of industry veterans who worked on multiple high-profile projects over the years. The tactical roguelite, which is scheduled to launch on PC in spring 2025, will mark the company’s first original game to date.
Founded in 2018, Stray Kite Studios is a Dallas, Texas-based developer with approximately 30 employees as of 2025. The company’s staffers include former BioShock, Borderlands, and Age of Empires developers. To date, Stray Kite has produced the standalone version of Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep, subtitled A Wonderlands One-Shot Adventure, as well as a plethora of Creative maps for Fortnite.
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The company has now unveiled its first original game in the form of Wartorn. Described as a combination of real-time strategy and roguelite elements, Wartorn will tell the story of two elven sisters seeking to reunite with their family. Their journey will be long and perilous, incorporating everything from difficult fights to morally dubious decisions.
Wartorn Is Chaotic in More Than One Way
The fantasy setting of Wartorn features a deeply divided world mired in chaos, which will test the protagonists in more than one way. Another chaotic element of the game is its support for environmental destruction, which won’t be scripted but physics-driven. This feature is one of the ways in which Wartorn will ensure that every encounter plays out a bit differently. In terms of themes, Wartorn will focus on the idea of finding purpose amid chaos. “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,” said Stray Kite Studios co-founder and creative director Paul Hellquist.
Wartorn Will Require Players To Make Tough Decisions
In between battles, Wartorn players will have to make difficult decisions, like choosing which character to feed or whom to save from certain death. Such choices will feed into the game’s concept of a story-driven roguelite experience, in addition to helping make every playthrough unique. A similar level of freedom will be offered during combat, which will feature a magic system allowing players to dynamically mix and match elemental forces such as fire, water, and lightning. Apart from having different interactions with one another, such spells will also have a variety of situational applications, like shocking enemies in water or setting fire to mobs covered in tar.
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.
As is to be expected from a roguelite, Wartorn‘s progression system features upgrades that carry over between runs, making every subsequent attempt at completing its journey a bit easier. The game’s visuals attempt to evoke a painterly aesthetic that makes its setting look that much more dramatic. In a bid to deliver maximally accessible gameplay, Wartorn will also offer an ability to slow down on-screen action to a crawl and give precise commands to characters in between all the chaos. The newly announced game is on course to launch in early access in spring 2025. Wartorn will be available on both Steam and the Epic Games Store.
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