Today, Raw Power Games released its first Developer Diary for Chronicles: Medieval, titled What We’re Building.
Hosted by Lead Producer Sam, the dev diary establishes the core vision for Chronicles: Medieval, a sprawling, dynamic sandbox set in 14th and 15th-century Europe. The first pillar of development is the dynamic sandbox, as the team is building a world from interlocking systems that feel like they follow real logic rather than scripted sequences pretending to be emergent.
The second pillar is tactical battles, which is built using the foundation of a three-layer combat system. The unique combat structure that scales from personal to strategic, distinguished between Combat, Captain, and General layers:
- Combat Layer: Direct, third-person one-on-one fighting focused on historical martial arts and believable animations.
- Captain Layer: Real-time command of units in your immediate vicinity during larger battles.
- General Layer: Top-down tactical planning and unit positioning before and during major engagements.
The combat system blends a top-down strategic overview for command with intense third-person action for personal involvement, letting players lead armies, conduct sieges, or fight as a single skilled soldier in battles informed by Historical European Martial Arts research.
The third pillar is mod support. The developers are working with the community, drawing on their knowledge and hands-on modding experience to build a stronger foundation for the game. Modding tools will not be available from day one, but are expected to be fully released by 1.0, with some earlier rollouts and test periods throughout Early Access.
The final pillar is co-op. Chronicles: Medieval will feature co-op custom battles for up to 4 friends to play together, allowing you to team up, strategize, and face off against a hostile army. The campaign mode architecture has even been built with co-op in mind, with the goal for the 1.0 release being the introduction of co-op campaign play, allowing players to invite their friends to play together. It is important to note that servers with match-making, server browsers, and large PvP battles will not be the focus of development.
Alongside the core pillars of the game’s vision, Raw Power Games also explained their five design principles: Wheel of Time, Information is Power, Sidtracking Through Opportunities, Historical Believability, and Dynamic Environment.
- Wheel of Time – A legacy system tracks your actions over roughly 35 in-game years, ensuring the world remembers your impact even after your character retires, with the world evolving with each generation.
- Information is Power – The overworld map will be broken into unexplored, which is blacked out, explored but outdated, which features info that may have changed, and the current scouting range, which broadcasts live data.
- Sidtracking Through Opportunities – Choose paths of Power, Adventure, or Fortune, pivoting as the world simulation reacts to your actions and experiencing meaningful choices based on historical context and evolving geopolitical tensions.
- Historical Believability – Features believable weapon techniques and a heavy emphasis on polearms as the “backbone” of historical warfare, as well as 14th-century armor, clothing, and fashion, aiming to move past the “gray” depiction of the Middle Ages and offer a vibrant, historically researched aesthetic.
- Dynamic Environment – Factions and NPCs have their own schemes and agendas, and the underlying economy can be influenced or disrupted by player decisions.
There will be plenty more deep dives in the near future, as Raw Power Games plans to outline how warfare and diplomacy interact, map exploration and structure, different unit types and their recruitment, and much more. Chronicles: Medieval is currently slated for Steam Early Access in 2026.
As soon as players hop into the Early Access version of the game, they’ll be able to create their character, explore the map, and engage with the world as it begins to unfold, with a primary focus of this period of development being on the archetypal journey of a fledgling army commander. You start as a nobody and carve your way up the feudal hierarchy, fielding large armies as a ruthless leader and seeking warfare on your terms.
