Summary
Stray Kite Studios, a team of industry veterans with credits on major titles like BioShock, Borderlands, and Age of Empires, has announced their first original game: Wartorn. This real-time strategy roguelite boasts destructible environments, impactful moral choices, and a striking painterly art style. Wartorn is slated for a Spring 2025 Early Access launch on Steam and the Epic Games Store.
Wartorn is the debut original title from Dallas-based Stray Kite Studios, established in 2018 and currently employing around 30 people. Prior to Wartorn, the studio's portfolio includes the standalone Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep: A Wonderlands One-Shot Adventure and numerous creative maps for Fortnite.
This new title casts players into a chaotic fantasy world, following two elven sisters on a perilous quest to reunite with their family. Their journey will be filled with challenging battles and morally complex decisions, shaping the narrative and gameplay experience.
Wartorn Is Chaotic in More Than One Way
Wartorn's fantasy setting is a deeply fractured world steeped in chaos, presenting numerous challenges for the player characters. Adding to this chaos is the game's physics-driven environmental destruction system, ensuring no two playthroughs are exactly alike. Thematically, Wartorn explores the search for purpose amidst turmoil. Co-founder and Creative Director Paul Hellquist states, "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."
Wartorn Will Require Players To Make Tough Decisions
Beyond combat, players face difficult moral choices between battles – deciding who to save, who to feed, and ultimately influencing the narrative. These choices, combined with the roguelite structure, guarantee a unique experience with each playthrough. Combat itself offers strategic freedom through a dynamic magic system, allowing players to creatively combine fire, water, and lightning elements for diverse tactical applications (e.g., shocking enemies in water, igniting tar-covered foes).
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 expected from a roguelite, Wartorn features persistent upgrades between runs, making subsequent attempts progressively easier. The game's painterly aesthetic enhances the dramatic world, while an adjustable slow-motion feature allows for precise command inputs during intense moments, ensuring accessibility for all players. The Early Access release on Steam and the Epic Games Store is planned for Spring 2025.
