Credenzio Studios just launched a Kickstarter campaign for Lionhearts, defined as a “Persistent Multiplayer Medieval Simulator.”
Fans of Roblox may be familiar with the developers, as they’re the creators of the popular experience Lionhearts: Crusade.
This new project aims to bring a similar experience to PC via Steam, developed in Unreal Engine 5.
The Kickstarter Campaign has been up for a day, but has already gathered $53,551 of the $100,000 goal, with 28 days to go. The project has extensive and ambitious stretch goals up to $5.6 million.
Below, you can check out a cinematic trailer and a demo showcasing the visuals of one of the locations in development. The demo itself can already be downloaded and enjoyed on your own PC.
The game is set during the 12th-century Third Crusade and will have a single, persistent open world centered around the city of Jerusalem. It’ll include 12 player-run kingdoms and 4 military orders with every position of power available to players.
For those who prefer more peaceful endeavors, there will be 14 guild types and 66 professions. Religion and influence also play a vital role, and the whole idea is based on a full sandbox simulation of a slice of the medieval world.
Here’s how the developers themselves describe the features.
- Persistent Open World: Lionhearts will contain a single, persistent open world where servers are stitched together into a seamless shared experience. Every location will exist in only one instance—no server hopping or loading screens required. Supply and demand will be shaped by a scarcity of resources. Each fief will be unique and owned by a single individual.
Trade: With 14 guild types and 66 professions (such as blacksmith, merchant, etc.), players can roleplay to their heart’s desire. Players can control entire industries by founding guilds, setting prices, and monopolizing resources. - Kingdoms: With 12 player-run kingdoms and 4 military orders, every position of power, from lord to king, is controlled by real players. Players command retinues, wage wars, and navigate diplomacy in a dynamic, unscripted struggle for land and influence. Monarchs must balance internal politics, trade, and religion while competing for dominance in the Holy Land and beyond.
- Religion: Religion in the world of Lionhearts is vital to the functioning of every kingdom. Religion acts as a class to support societal ties between kingdoms, and it provides a place for education, research and alternative power structures.
- Expand Your Influence: Players can ascend through military, trade, or religious hierarchies to establish and expand their power. Serve a kingdom to command a retinue and claim land, build a trade empire by mastering a craft to lead a guild, or rise through the clergy to shape faith and politics. Each path offers unique systems of influence, territory control, and strategic decision-making, allowing players to forge their own legacy.
- Gather Resources: Players will cut down forests, mine for ore in dark caverns, and forage for herbs in dense woodlands. Resources have varied rarities and limited supply, making them a point of contention among rival kingdoms.
- Shadow-Tasking System: Players will have the ability to assign tasks to their character’s offline shadow in order to gather resources, craft items, or maintain their fief while away.
- Feudal Sandbox: Players can control fiefs as lords and levy taxes, build cities, and lease property to fellow players. These landlords can hold and manage their demesne as they please; they can customize and upgrade farms, homes, or defenses to better fortify themselves, earn additional income, and showcase their power.
- Skirmishes: Players will battle alongside friends in various ways, such as raiding caravans, stealing enemy resources, or sabotaging their defenses!
- Conquer Jerusalem: Players will conquer the Holy Land with their kingdom on the warpath to Jerusalem.
- Become the One True King: Are you prepared to test your mettle through the brutal game of politics and war? The most ambitious players will rise to the top to become the sole ruler of a massive kingdom of subjects.
If you’re interested in medieval sandbox games, you can check out our coverage of Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord and the recently announced Chronicles: Medieval, which made its debut at Summer Game Fest.
