We’re very happy, slightly terrified, and probably over-caffeinated to say that the playable demo for The Drifting Crown is now available on Steam.
The Drifting Crown is a Victorian-era steampunk action-adventure roguelite where you build the world before stepping into it. You place hexagonal world fragments, shape the map, create routes, decide which dangers are worth facing, and then jump into the world you’ve just built to fight monsters, collect loot, upgrade your gear, and usually die in a way that was technically avoidable.
At the heart of the game is one very important goal: reopen the pub.
The world has fallen apart. Monsters are everywhere. Machines have gone a bit mad. Civilisation is hanging by a thread. Naturally, we thought the most reasonable thing to do was make the last pub on Earth the emotional centre of the apocalypse.
Every run in The Drifting Crown reshapes the world around you. The tiles you place affect where you can go, what you can reach, what you might find, and what horrible thing might find you first. Some decisions help you survive. Some decisions teach you something useful for next time. Some decisions are just funny in hindsight, which is still technically progress.
We’re a small 8-person indie team building The Drifting Crown in Unreal Engine, and this demo is the first proper chance for players to get their hands on the game. It has been a long road of testing systems, breaking systems, fixing systems, then wondering why the monsters are suddenly much better at their jobs than expected.
The demo gives players a taste of our main loop: build the world, explore what you created, fight through the ruins, gather upgrades, improve your chances, and slowly work towards making the pub habitable again.
It’s strategic, fast-paced, a bit dangerous, a bit sarcastic, and hopefully the kind of game where dying still feels like you got something useful out of it.
You can play the demo now on Steam, and if you like the idea of rebuilding a broken world for the very noble cause of getting a drink, we’d be very grateful if you wishlisted the game too.
What You’ll Do in the Demo
- Build the world before you explore it: Place hexagonal tiles, shape routes, unlock areas, and decide how much danger you’re willing to invite into your day.
- Step into what you created: Once the world is built, you physically enter it to explore, fight, scavenge, and discover what your own planning has done to you.
- Fight, die, improve, repeat: Fast-paced action RPG combat meets roguelite progression, where every failure gives you something to bring into the next run.
- Upgrade your chances: Collect resources, improve your gear, unlock new options, and become slightly less doomed each time.
- Rebuild the pub: The pub is your hub, your refuge, and the reason any of this counts as civilisation.
- Enjoy some steampunk nonsense: Victorian machinery, broken worlds, monsters, sarcasm, and stubborn optimism.
