A modern soldier, an AK-47 and thousands of fully simulated medieval troops. After two delays and months of silence, Kingmakers is back with a big gameplay deep dive, and Steam playtest sign-ups are open now.
Every gamer has had the thought: how many knights could you take out with an AK-47? Kingmakers is built entirely around finding out. You’re a modern soldier sent 500 years back in time to medieval Britain, armed with assault rifles, grenade launchers, armoured SUVs, attack helicopters and air strikes, and thrown into battles with thousands of medieval soldiers on screen at once. Then you take command of your own army and fight the war from above.
It’s made by Redemption Road Games and published by tinyBuild. Since its reveal in early 2024 it’s racked up more than a million Steam wishlists, a Golden Joystick nomination for Best Trailer, and a Netflix movie deal. All of that before anyone outside a playtest has actually played it.
The hook is that you can switch between a third-person shooter and a top-down strategy view at any moment. Down on the ground you’re mowing through swordsmen and calling in air strikes. Pull up to the map and you’re ordering archers, spearmen, cavalry and swordsmen around, building fortifications, or handing orders to your officers so they can run things while you get back in the fight.
The September gameplay deep dive goes further: you siege castles, set up outposts and then have to hold the territory you take against waves of enemies, with resources, upgrades and progression tying it together. The developers have previously talked about six troop types for Early Access (swordsmen, spearmen, cavalry, archers, berserkers and men-at-arms), most of which can be upgraded, like archers turning into longbowmen.
This is the bit that makes it look nuts. Every battle runs as a full real-time simulation, and every soldier has their own AI handling decisions, pathfinding and even loyalty. Add a procedural animation system and you get the footage that grabbed everyone: soldiers storming walls, fighting inside buildings and piling up in front of a bloke with a machine gun. Structures are destructible too, so castles come apart properly.
The story is set in 1403 during Owain Glyndŵr’s Welsh rebellion against the English crown. Your job is to change how the war ends and, if you’re lucky, prevent the apocalypse in your own time. Up to four players can do it together in online co-op, which is where we reckon it’ll be at its most chaotic.
Kingmakers hasn’t had a smooth ride. It was due in Early Access in Q1 2025, then slipped to 8 October 2025. Days before that date, the developers pulled it again with no new date, saying they didn’t want to cut features or compromise the game just to ship it sooner. After that it went very quiet for months, apart from small developer posts on Steam about animations and balance work.
It’s now properly back. The team showed its first public playable demo at BiliBili World in China in July, and on 14 September it led tinyBuild’s Connect showcase with a gameplay deep dive running more than 10 minutes (that’s the video at the top of this page). There’s still no Early Access date, but playtest sign-ups are open now: hit Request Access on the Steam page. The developers say a big wave of invites is going out in an upcoming playtest.
Oh, and the movie: in December 2025 Netflix picked up a Kingmakers film from Shawn Levy’s 21 Laps and Story Kitchen, with Christopher MacBride writing.
This is the dumbest, best pitch in gaming, and we mean that as a compliment. Plenty of games have tried thousands of soldiers on screen, and plenty have handed you a gun. None of them let you drive an armoured SUV through a shield wall, then zoom out and order the longbowmen to finish the job.
The delays are a fair worry. A million wishlists and a Netflix deal for a game nobody can buy yet is a lot of hype to live up to, and “no cuts, no compromises” only works if the game eventually ships. But the deep dive looks like a real game rather than a trailer, and the BiliBili demo means people outside the studio are finally getting their hands on it. We’re hyped, with one eye on the release date.
Sign up for the playtest, and if you get in, tell us how many knights you managed before they got you. Would you play it solo, or round up three mates for co-op chaos? Let us know in the comments or on the GetRekt Discord.
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